"brickeyee" I appreciate your input about using drywall instead of floor boards. I've wrestled with that idea for a few days now. Here's my problem. The plaster walls are really old with a lot of bows and bulges, I thought the wood product would be stiffer and maybe give me a smoother finish than drywall. I thought the drywall might telegraph the imperfections of the wall. Plus, i have never taped and mudded before and when I mess that up it might look worse then the seams of the wood product. I don't know ? Additionally, I'm doing V-board at the bottom and the top 4 ft. to the ceiling with wood panels. I hope it does not turn into a disaster.

The problem is if you have dry wall underneath the paper. You wind up taking the drywall outer paper off. If it is too hard to remove. The allturnative can be to use a special paint to seal the paper that is there and then prime and prepare the wall properly for new paper ...or paint. That's what I did in my bathroom. The paper that won't come off thus become part of the drywall. If you have a plastered wall you can steem it off. or use ziff. Good Luck Scott

Sanding latex paint is a futile attempt at smoothing. Better to skim coat a little drywall compound over the area and then sand with a sanding block. After sanding , run a well dampened block sponge along the area where the patching meets the old wall area. This will get rid of an minor ridge of compound. You will want to prime this new patch, but use an old, worn roller in order to impart a slight texture, as your new patch will probably be noticeably smoother than the old roller texture on the wall. Further, I would give the new patch a quick, light coat of the finish coat paint, followed by a general painting of the room. Should a "flashing" of the patch still be visible, you may be forced to apply a second general finish coat.

I don't think I can get the paper wallpaper backing/wallpaper paste to release from the paper coating of the faux wood paneling. They've essentially fused to become one. If I try to remove all of the paper, and clean it, I'm certain I will end up with badly damaged paneling. I really think the only options are paper over paper, or paper over paste. I just need help understanding which is best of these two options.