OK, you guys and some folks over in the Old House forum have talked me down off the ledge. We've put the sledgehammers down and are going to get lots of GW advice and attempt to make this little house period-appropriate, within the confines of our budget and my needs for comfort and beauty. The texture stays for now. I'm going to be posting over in Old House to vet our design choices and figure out how to work with a plaster house, since this is our first one. Feel free to join me over there and offer your opinions and advice. And thanks in advance. :-)

Granted, smooth walls are very hard to do well, and every little nick or wave in the drywall shows. But when done well, and painted well, it's pretty amazing. And it makes the room look bigger because you lose a visual sense of where the wall actually is, especially if you use a flat finish. I just got so tired of 11 years of that knock-down collecting so much dust and dirt. Another alternative is that with each successive painting of your textured walls, the pattern disappears as the paint builds up. When we bought our house, I immediately painted the bedrooms and noticed a huge difference, especially since I used 2 coats. I didn't do the common areas, and you could see the ridges and plateaus much more easily. To each his/her own.

Doesn't seem to have curly top virus ... just kind-of droopy. Is that the aphids, or is there something else going on? It's raining today, so maybe some will be washed off, but we'll spray it down if they're still there tomorrow. (That's a pepper plant next to it.) This is a new planter ... previous years we've used an orange one of the same shape; I think this one is a tiny bit bigger than the old one, both self watering from Gardener's Supply (the orange one is probably like ten years old). The ladders are the same ones we always use, and this is the same location where we've grown Striped Roman the last few years. It is droopier the hotter it is, but it's not even hot today and it's still not as perky as the others. Potting soil is all or mostly Coast of Maine potting soil. (We might of dumped the end of another bag in the bottom, still new potting soil, just maybe lower quality.) If not the bugs, is the new pot causing this? Something systematic? What should I do for it to get it to perk up?

Remove the existing drywall and do new drywall is the lowest proced option with the best results. All other options involve much more paid labor, and the results are not as good. Sanding and skimming is not a DIY option, unless you have years if experience. And even then, a pro with experience would do the new drywall.