awful walls after the old wallpaper came off

[palminnie2]

the peeling wallpaper was removed as best could by myself, twin and three men :)
its woeful.
its rough and wouldnt take paint as i had anticipated.
i wouldnt get a good finish.
i cannot do the plaster skim, and less able to afford.
would it be madness to paper all in a plain wallpaper, say cream or white. this may give a cleaner smoother finish.
they will be covered with my own oil paintings and stuff from a previous existence, but is this the best option i have?
all suggestions considered.
also the fireplace, if i paint over the very dark brown ugly fire mantle etc and it looks wojus i guess the next would be to take it away, so is it worth trying this, again whats the alternative to removing it if the painting makes it ten times worse!

[Clubby]

Im in exactly the same boat Palminni2,the main bedroom is realy bad,entire room had 2x1 battons with hardboard and as i was takeing them off the walls were comeing with it,its a night mare and like you i cant get a pro in but i have to tackle it myself,iv no choice,can you put pics up of yours ? in my last house they wernt as bad as here so i went with the flow and colour washed them old school,i put on a softsheen in cream and a watered down ocre over it and wiped of most of it ,it turned out great,if its a case of your walls been very powdery and dusty you might need to do a wash of a pva first so it takes the paint,hope this is of some help, id love to see your fireplace to ,im still useing mine so i cant do anything with it yet .