The walls of my house, like many in this area, are pretty bad. Apparently a higher than normal amount of sand was used in the bricks and the mortar, and the plaster is very old and weak. Even putting in a nail to hang a picture on risks taking a large chunk out.
To make matters worse the previous owner covered the walls with woodchip/anaglyptic wallpaper which has been painted over half a dozen times. Woodchip is messy and difficult to remove at the best of times and I'm sure half the wall would come with it.
The obvious solution is to have the walls re-plastered, or have frames and plasterboard fitted. As much as I would love to do that (and get the place re-wired too) it's both expensive and extremely messy.
What other options are there? I'd like to end up with smooth walls suitable for painting and ideally some extra wiring for power and network. The skirting boards and ceiling coving really want replacing too but are less important.