Oh dear, Dallasbill...I just saw this post because chiefneil was kind enough to link to the thread on another forum. Thank you so much for posting the pics and linking to more. Your house takes my breath away. That is the *perfect* wall treatment for the design of the home. That last picture of the several planes of wall with the different inflections of the finish...calls to mind Georgia O'Keefe for some reason, that same stillness... Going back to look at it again and sigh.

Well, we've been tackling the paint/calcimine dilemma for two days now, and this is where we're at: Hubby and I have been going at the surface layer of (peeling) paint with 3" putty knives, and we've gotten about 85% of the paint off... the remaining stuff JUST WILL NOT BUDGE. This morning we went to HD and I picked up a jug of TSP, which (according to the label) is good for removing chalky substances. While hubby was up on the scaffolding, scraping near the ceiling, I started scrubbing a section of the wall with full-strength TSP and an abrasive sponge (like one would use for drywall finishing), being sure to leave a good sudsy layer on for 2-3 minutes before rinsing with a different sponge and clean water. Two scrubs/rinses seemed to cut down about 90% of the chalkiness, and it did help lift the surface layer of paint somewhat, but there are still patches of paint here and there that no amount of scraping seems to want to take off. My question is, do we absolutely NEED to get every speck of surface paint off the walls before priming/repainting? I found the above-mentioned Benjamin Moore product via a Google search; has anyone used it before, and do you know how much wall prep is required before applying it? I am wondering how much of the calcimine it penetrates... Whoever said this wasn't an easy project sure wasn't kidding... It's a cheap project as far as materials costs go, but BOY is it grueling...

Progress: And 1 inch of what may have been the original 1887 wallpaper. I like the green: I ended up using the circular saw to make grid cuts 12-18" apart. I used the multi tool to make cuts closer to the wall and corners where the circular saw couldn't clear. I tried different methods to pry the sections off; some were too narrow; some had too much flex. A 5" wide blade, hammered in and then pried down, did most of the work. Where the ceiling met the wall, I did a combination of breaking the paint and skim coat with a putty knife hammered upwards, and just cutting around with a multitool. There was only about a 1/8" thick bond to break through so it came away, thankfully, easily. I'd say it was altogether 10 hours in a 6 x 8 room to get this far--crazy! I definitely won't be doing the rest of the house. In most other rooms I plan to knock off the flecky balls and skim coat the ridged scallops, like Worthy suggests. In the double parlor, which has crown molding, I'll go through this routine. It's a great upper body workout! Some of the original ceiling is loose, so I'll be putting in some plaster washer anchors. You can also see where they poked holes to verify the location of studs. Those and the cracks will get fiberglass tape and patched. A little skimming, a little sanding, a little paint, and she'll be done. Of course, before all that, I'll do a thorough scrub down with tsp and water, then rinse, dry, and coat with benjamin moore calcimine recoater. Then plaster bonding agent to all the damaged places, and then fiberglass tape, patch/fill with durabond, knock down with a putty knife, then easy sand, then sanding, priming, and finally paint. What could be easier?!? Hope everybody else is having as much fun as I am this weekend! And yes, I'm saving a sample of the wallpaper for the house book.

Lots of good counsel about getting the wallpaper off. I would suggest, though, that you remove some wallpaper from an inconspicuous spot to start so you can see what the plaster is like beneath. A good many older houses never received a finish plaster coat. What that means is you might find a rough, sandy plaster that would have to be skim coated before painting if you want a decent finish.This would greatly complicate what you want to do. Skim coating demands a great deal of care and skill so you would want to go slowly doing one room at a time or hire someone with the expertise to do it for you. If there is a hard, smooth finish coat of plaster, you're all set to paint once the walls have been washed to eliminate any residue of wallpaper paste, minor dings have been filled and a primer coat, if needed, has been applied.