Perhaps someone here can help us out. The house DH grew up in is a small adobe with one tiny bathroom. The plumbing was having some issues so we're taking this opportunity while the tenants are away for Christmas to get the plumber in to have a look. This is a lot like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." Yes the shower/bathtub plumbing needs attention, but there are areas of paint peeling off the walls around the sink, the walls have growing spots here and there, the 70 year old medicine cabinet needs to go, the overhead light needs replacing (rust), and the light switches need changing out. If this were a stick built house we'd pull it out to the studs and start again, but there are no studs. The walls are solid adobe, 16" thick. The bricks were hand made from the soil on the property around 1939.

Which brings us to what to do about the walls. The top half of the walls is straightforward paint and not an issue. The bottom half seems to be concrete that was troweled onto the wall and marked into 4" "tiles."
{{gwi:2137256}} It's been painted more than once, but I don't know if the paint has ever been peeling off before. What do you think? I've been using a putty knife to peel off the loose bits, but it makes no headway on the sound paint. Hit it with a wire brush and repaint? Sandblast? Ideas?