I didn't want to hijack Mikester's kitchen thread, so I'll start a new one instead. (Cuz I know everyone wants to know about my kitchen).
I started on our kitchen last night, although we arent going for a major rebuild, just paint. Well, "just paint" isn't quite accurate, as we have a tremendous amount of prep to do in order to get paint to adhere. The previous owners were chain smokers, literally lighting one cigarette of the last, and the tarry residue is still "gunked up" on the cabinets. Plus, they deep fried everthing they ate... so the cabinets are very gummy. We've been here a bit over a year and had it cleaned up enough to use, but it's still ugly.
So in order to get paint to stick, here's the plan:
-Clean everything with TSP, using steel wool.
-Sand any "contact" surface, especially corners, cupboard doors etc
-Prime with Zinsser primer
-2 coats of semi-gloss oil paint.
As of right now, I have the cupboards empty and the doors off. I just finished cleaning with TSP. The crap that came off the wood is vile and putrid, probably a blend of tobacco tar and deep fry fat.
More pics as the work continues...