@Sally221 I've never been a professional painter, but I've always been pretty meticulous when I paint. When I bought my old house in Canada, which was a wreck when I got it, almost everything was still covered in paint from the 50's, I guess. putrid peach, industrial green, a sickening puce. All lead base, I'm sure. We put up new dry wall in most places, so I didn't have to try to cover that old paint. I primed, then used 2 coats of high quality semi-gloss paint. used many different colors and always saved some in small jars for touch-ups. Lived in that house for 20 years, with 3 kids and multitudes of their friends coming and going.
When I was preparing to put it on the market, the real estate agent told me I should repaint everything white. No way was I going to do that. Not just that I wasn't going to use white, I had no intentions of repainting at all. I scrubbed down the ceilings and walls, filled any little dings or nail holes, then went around with a small brush and my matching touch-up paint, feathering it out into the original paint. When friends and neighbors stopped by to see my progress on getting the place ready to list, many said "Oh, you repainted the whole place!"!" And the people who bought it, who were the first people to view it on Open House day and immediately put in an offer, said "We love the colors! We're so glad it's not all white or beige."
The only real paint striping job I did in that house, soon after I moved in, was on the stairs, which had several layers of old paint and ancient grubby lino runner. We had no idea what was underneath, but we sanded it down, and it turned out to be beautiful yellow cedar. Couldn't face trying to strip the risers, so I painted them turquoise.