awful walls after the old wallpaper came off
 

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!

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 .