Bob, I am NOT a master painter. I HAVE made a lot of painting mistakes and try to learn from them. I admire your attitude, seeing through the Big Orange Box to get good stuff at a good price while supporting a smaller buisness and realizing that you need to exercise care to get the economy of longivity in your paint job. I have found that in general you can NOT save money by buying cheap paint. The other three main things to "get right" for a good paint job are inapplicable here as you are starting with bare wood.
OK for those who may not know the three keys to a good lasting paint job. They are (in no particular order) preperation, preperation, and preperation. The best paint in the world on a poorly or improperly prepared surface is a waste of labor.
Knowing that I don't know (and not being too impressed with a lot of the folks behind counters in places like the Depot), I tend to lean on manufacturer's recommendations. Experts, when they can be found (not everyone in white but paint spattered bib overalls is a good source of info) are great. With all the "modern" chemicals in the formulary of paint products, much of what I know gets obsoleted by the time I need to do it again. I guess that is a good thing as it says I got a good long period of protection before needing a repaint.
Way back in time, water based and oil based didn't mix, like oil and water didn't mix. Then oil over water was OK like oil floats on water (the way they told me I could remember it) BUT not water base on top of oil base. Now, I would have to follow the directions on the can or from additional info by manufacturer as the "old rules" are not strictly correct in all cases.
I can comment from experience on some elements of the job. Make sure everything to be painted is clean and dry AND has "tooth". Wood can be too smooth to hold paint well. Use the best paint you can budget. In the past, to save money, I used to keep an eye on the "OOPS" paint shelves at the BIG stores. This is paint that was custom mixed but not acceptable to the customer so they mark it WAY WAY down. I found that, at my local store, all the oops paint in a general category (latex, acrylic, oil, whatever) sold for the same price, depending on container size not original price. So I bought up a lot of the real good stuff, real cheap, and either used it as primer or diddled with the colors by mixing a little of this and a little of that. I paid $5/gal for $20-$30/gal paint. I promise you, the good (read expensive) paint will brush and spray better, give better coverage, and last better. I also bougt 5 gal buckets of OOPS paint. I repainted my entire house inside and out prior to selling it, with high quality OOPS paint. Working with higher qual paint is a different experience than using the cheap stuff.
I have used cheap white primers that I don't know how many coats would have been required to do a good job because after 5-6 coats I gave up and bought a good primer to coat the cheap primer so I could get on with the pastel color coat over a good even base. It was interior so there is a chance the cheap primer didn't cause problems in later years.
I know you can get lots of advice, probably all well intentioned but some of it will no doubt be ill informed. The rub is, if you had to ask then perhaps you aren't equipped to elliminate the specious comments. In the final analysis, rely on the manufacturer's sugestions and you shouldn't go too far wrong.
I hope you get a good attractive paint job that will weather well and be so long lasting you'll have to ask how to recoat it as the memory of how you did it will have dimmed over time.
Patirck
