The wall to my right, whose cracks and dents have been inexpertly mudded over, has been painted a neutral color. The (small) wall in front of me sports a really cool grasscloth, which does, indeed, cover a multitude of sins (okay, two square yards of beadex substituting for the annihilated plaster covering a foundation wall). For what it's worth, I love them both. But the grasscloth was free (leftovers), and complements room's chosen color scheme perfectly. Big bux were spent on (re) wallpapering parts of our house, and the new stuff was cheap-y enough that two bandaids, c/o my then-four y.o. (this topic was recently brought up elsewhere on this forum), pulled the thin sheathing (pattern) right off, forcing me to do a cut 'n patch job that I don't like. I don't like wallpaper. The old-school, die-hard stuff, the new, dainty, ornate stuff, most grasscloth........ but patterns can and should exist in moderation. Like you, I have grappled with the issue of refurbishing the skimcoat, since, scraping off the previous coat of (I'll give you three guesses) meant unearthing the underlying wall in unpredictable strata. I'm of the school that (from a purely aesthetic and lasting point of view) original plaster and a porterhouse steak are god's way of saying 'I love you.' But his graces don't come without effort.... I think re-surfacing would be worth it, especially if the job is minimal. You will be infinitely rewarded........

Hi Rhoda - thanks for coming by to take a look. I referred to your blog as I did this project and it was incredibly helpful. Keep up the good work! Hockeymom I'll take a picture of the edges and post it. You can kind of get an idea by looking at the picture above with the clamps. I glued the moulding on flush with the edge of the door. On one of the doors I think the moulding went a little over the edge because it rubbed a little against the door next to it when we rehung them. So my son sanded both edges a bit and I had to repaint, but it was fine. I did fill in the seam between the moulding and the original door. I used spackle pretty liberally, let it dry overnight, then sanded the next morning with an electric sander to get it smooth. I think Rhoda used caulk. Any place I missed got filled in pretty well with paint. It was a little easier to have the wallpaper go almost all the way to the edge of the door (that happened on the hall cabinet doors, but the laundry room doors were too wide for a single sheet to go entirely edge to edge). valinsv - I was a little nervous about using the mitre saw, but my son (he's 19) stepped right up and started cutting angles with no problem. I had him do a couple of trial cuts first just to be sure that the 45 degrees was exact (it was). The guy we bought the saw from showed me how to use it. Next project for my son's summer break from college: baseboards! Lynn I might have to go to Albuquerque in the next couple of weeks. I've seen the pictures you've posted of your beautiful house - I'd love to help, but you're so talented I'm sure you'll have no problem with this kind of project.

Karen: which technique are you doing? Textured wallpaper over old wallpaper? Or one of the others? Rereading my post (after getting some sleep) it reads more like I am asking about texturing with drywall compound (like imitating venetian plaster, or a tuscan stucco look). PLEASE come back and tell me how it went! I have seen the paper bag technique done on home improvement shows. ItÂs actually simpler. Dipping in poly would be very messy and sticky. You adhere the paper with latex glaze or acrylic matte medium. Then cover with the same clear liquid to seal it in before painting. My hesitation with doing that is if someday down the road you didnÂt want such a texture, you could NEVER get it off. The entire room would have to be skimcoated by someone with the skills to get it really flat and smooth. I donÂt think I want to go that route. At least with drywall compound texturing it could be sanded off smooth easily.

I have had wallpaper in practically every room in my house until about 8 years ago when I did a whole house "face-lift". I will not bore you with the horror stories of removal. Let's just say some rooms got covered with new 1/4" sheetrock. None of my paper was expensive, but most of it was "vinyl coated". Some of it was $10 a roll outlet store paper. It was all WASHABLE. I remember occasionally spraying the kitchen walls with Fantastik or 409 of equivalent type household cleaners - did not harm the paper at all. I even had it for a backsplash behind the kitchen range. I still have 12-13 year old wallpaper in one bathroom (waiting for a total gut job) in a few months. It doesn't even look bad behind the double vanity from years of water splashes and hairspray :). What I meant to say was - it doesn't look worn - it does look "bad" in that it is SO dated (very country). I also still have a "cutesy" blue and yellow Waverly plaid wallpaper in my laundry/mud room on the bottom half with a coordinating floral border that has been up for about 10 years. That room is a TRUE mudroom with all of DH's work boots, hunting gear, etc coming through that room over the years. It has worn well.....considering. http://www.archiexpo.com/prod/waverly-div-schumacher-co/plaid-wallpapers-5211-475982.html Moral of my story - wallpaper has performed well for me over the years. I still get a "hankering" for wallpaper occasionally now that I can afford some of the nicer stuff - would LOVE to have some Thibaut. But 8 years ago, while cursing, ranting, raving, and shedding a few tears upon removal, I made a vow to myself to never hang another piece of wallpaper.