Thank you. I actually contacted the manufacturer of the vinyl flooring that's in my DR/LR/Hall in June because when I asked the store's receptionist why the Owner/Mngr wasn't returning my calls, I was told he had contacted the manufacturer and was waiting to hear back from them. Well, I called the manufacturer and it turns out they hadn't been contacted by anyone from the store. After I shared this revelation with the store's receptionist, the salesman called me back and set up an apt to come to my home to look at the floor. It was during his visit that I showed him all of my photos. He also explained to me what luan is and why it's installed, so at that point, I still thought they had installed luan back in July (because "install new luan" was on the contract). Again, no mention of skim coating. Just an acknowledgement that there clearly is a problem but that it's probably caused by the structure of the home. He left and said he'd discuss it with his Mngr. A few days later when I called for an update, he said the installers will come back to cut the vinyl slightly away from the walls (something which had not been done though I read in the manufacturer's instructions that it should have been done). When the installers came back, they did cut the vinyl away from the wall on one edge and did a very sloppy job. I'm glad they decided not to do the same on any of the other edges since they did such a careless job. I will see if I can get a rep from each of the manufacturers to perform an inspection. At this point, I have zero faith in the honesty/integrity of the store from which the flooring was purchased. (The installers were subcontracted by the store.) Thank you!

I'm not sure if the OP is reading this anymore, but I did want to offer advice. I've been scraping (and scraping and scraping, you get the idea) wallpaper for so long. We're in the process of redoing my daughter's room and there were many many layers of wallpaper on the walls. I assumed the layers started in the 1930's, but on one wall, they put sheetrock over the plasterwall. It's some bizarre cardboard-like substance, so I guess in the 1950's- late 60's they just redecorated a lot. Anyway, long story shortened, when I got to the last layer on that cardbaord wall, it's stuck like glue over it. I got off all I could, scrubbed it, and my husband put a layer of plaster over the whole thing and it's now smooth as glass. I don't think this would work with many many layers, but my father in law has done this in the past, and after 20 years all is still good. I wouldn't recommend doing this in the more public areas of the home, but in the bedrooms it might work for you. It sounds like from your post that you are a thoughtful remodeler. I, like so many on this forum, cringe when thinking of "flippers" and the lack of care for history that many have. However, there are people who remodel who do a great job and do it not only to make money, but to improve their community. Those people are to be commended, because their vision helps create a longer history for that house in that community. I hope that you are able to bring that home to its former glory and find a family to love it.

We're in the NYC metro area and I'm sure the prices we were quoted reflect that, so suffice it to say that your preference order matches the cost from most to least expensive. As a side note, #2 came from a website, not personally recommended by a trusted friend, and also told me over the phone that he'd do it for less than 1/2 the quoted cost if we did it off the books. Given that I had just met him, I wasn't too keen on the idea of doing anything w/out a written contract, so we kind of crossed him off of our list. What was it about his proposal that you liked - skipping the mesh, removal of the damaged plaster? And if the mesh is not necessary in this scenario, when is it? I thought the purpose of it was to help prevent old cracks from reappearing. This post was edited by aliciaandbilly on Wed, May 29, 13 at 11:10

OK, I just did a Google Image search for "skip trowel" and it's not what our texture guy called skip trowel. Hummm, this is smooth but has irregular lines in it where it looks like the knife/trowel stopped. Crow's Feet has been "out" here in Texas for years! We built 26 years ago. I haven't seen it in very long time. Monica