Paint seems to be very geographic. In the northeast all the pianters we ever used worked with Benjamin Moore. We are now in CA and all the paint quotes use Dunn Edwards. I still use BM for any interior painting that I do, but I am using the Dunn Edwards to paint exterior stucco. DE is local to this area and seems to hold up well to the hot/sunny climate.

We are in Georgia and used Duration by SW. It has a lifetime warranty against chipping, which was important to us as we were painting masonry.

chispa, thanks for the info. i didn't realize that paint would be geographic, but that makes a lot of sense. i will check out Dunn Edwards to see if they have a store nearby. I am a little further north, so not as hot and sunny, but my region's weather will be very similar to yours. our contractor just told me to pick paint, so i didn't really know where to begin..
Athensmomof3, thanks for the tip on Duration by SW. I know there is a SW near me. A lifetime warranty would be great to have for exteriors. i will check it out too!
thank you both!

Take this for what it's worth - I find SW to be terrible paints anymore. Behr & Olympic are all I use anymore & they are usually #1 or 2 with Consumer Reports. Our stucco is painted with elastomeric & it's been on over 10 years with no issues. This is in San Antonio where it's hotter than heck. The last time I used SW was exterior trim & it's been 4 yrs & it looks bad. I tried Durations interior when it came out & you couldn't scrub the wall w/o paint coming off. Repainted the entire interior with Behr & Olympic it has stood up to everything so far.

bm duration...2 coats in atlanta.

thanks for all the paint suggestions. i have been reading up on all of these paints and it seems they are all pretty good quality, as long as the prep work is done right. so i should be ok just picking based on colors. thank you!!

We used Behr paint. It is amazing