Like many projects this one started out simple and is quickly getting away from us. We just had a fan put in our bathroom along with new drywall in the ceiling after we had water damage on the old stuff. Old house, long overdue project. Our plan was to then strip and repaint the walls at the same time we painted the new ceiling. The walls have some bubbling and mold and other damage from the moisture in the room from years of never having any exhaust or anything but a small window. We scrape at the walls and quickly find that it seems the walls have many layers of paint and some were done better than others. In one spot you will scrape at the wall and nothing comes off. I would say in almost half of the room the layer of paint seems completely solid and won't even flake or come up when we scrape at it and I would probably be comfortable washing it and painting over it. In another spot you might scrape and huge chunks of paint strip off as well as some patching material over cracks in the old wall. - [url]http://imgur.com/j83NQDx.jpg[/url] In some other spots the wall appears to be so water soaked that it just peels off right down to what I'm guessing is a layer of old drywall - [url=http://imgur.com/OxZo9NQ]imgur: the simple image sharer[/url] The worst spots are of course by the shower/tub and at any spot that had an old layer of what I'm assuming was some kind of drywall mud on the seams like in the picture. So already the project is getting away from us. Now since we are realizing this is going to be a big project we also look into peeling off some old faux tile on the walls figuring if we are going to spend this much time and effort we should just do it all. They are large sheets of tile on the front and with very little effort the entire sheet peels off the wall showing this - [url]http://imgur.com/QUtOQBY.jpg[/url] So I've been doing a lot of reading trying to do my research on what to do. One important piece is that I don't think completely replacing and redoing the walls is an option at this time, we simply cannot afford to pay someone to come redo the entire room right now. So if that's the only real option it might just be slapping in a crappy coat of paint to hold it over until hopefully some day we can save up. So here's what I'm thinking from what I've read and the part I have questions on and want advice. My current hope is to take everything out of the bathroom. Pull down those tile sheets and then make an effort to scrape and peel everything down as far as I can. Then to sand over and smooth out what I can before we clean and wash the walls and start mudding and smoothing it all out with a new coat. I expect this to take multiple coats with some areas needing a heavier amount to smooth out the different levels and some areas just needing a skimming. I realize this will be a lot of work and will be more than just a day project. Once everything is hopefully smoothed out we paint everything and be good. So I guess my biggest question right now is - Can we mud over that exposed drywall that looks like bare cardboard almost? Do we need to put a layer of oil based primer on it first to seal it? Should we put that primer on everything? But a second question would just be a general "Am I on the right track? Is this possible or should I not even attempt this? What big things would I need to be careful of or do I have the wrong idea about?" If I am on the right track I'd then be looking for advice on what type of paint and joint compound should I be using? (Or would this be better off posted in the forum for Patching and Plastering?)

hello i am prepping an old wood porch for paint, there are old wood columns which have splits or enlarged seams. for small splits i have always used the DAP paintable caulk. would it be acceptable to use liquid nails for larger or wider splits? someone had suggested BONDO but i find the liquid nails easier to work with thanks for the opinions