[Over and Over]

We just bought a house and tomorrow we plan on going in and getting it ready to be painted. I know that we need to remove any nails and fill in the holes with spackling to get the best quality paint job. But we are uncertain on whether or not we have to clean the walls first. The walls in the kitchen are kinda nasty and I will clean them before we paint, but do we have to clean the rest of the walls?We have to tear down wallpaper and boarder in one room, and boarder in three other rooms, the other two rooms are just paint.

[PortLover]

If you are priming the walls, you can just make sure there are no cobwebs or other things that will be visible underneath your coat of beautiful new paint. If you are going to prime the walls (which I would hightly recommend for the best results - especially if you are changing colors), most primers are designed to hide just about everything - stains, discoloration, etc. If you are painting directly over the existing paint, I'd recommend a quick wipe-down with a damp cloth.

[Morpheus]

Oh Congratulations on your new HOUSE! I've bought several and they're always scary - but it will work out SO WELL - if we survive the Depression.Probably easiest thing is to get a good sponge mop with an extra sponge. Dawn detergent (for dishes) is the best grease cutter. Get some hot water in the sink and wash the walls and ceiling quick with the sponge mop. If you have a wet/dry vacuum, take the filter out and suck the water and soup off the walls as you go - otherwise rinse.Also wash wallpaper walls with hot water and soap - keep it wet and it will fall off after a while. Then scrub those walls good to get the glue and little bits of wallpaper.When you're ready to paint, take you floor area times 3.5 - that will give you about the square footage of the surfaces to be painted - walls and ceiling - then figure 250 to 350 square feet per gallong. If you can, paint everything the same color. We used a lot of Navajo White - which is an offwhite - probably the most used color.Roll the paint as quickly as you can without spray coming off the roller - roll everything before cutting in with your brush. Roll over each and every square inch two or three times - make sure you cover. Don't leave any skips - but Don't overuse the paint either. Probably shouldn't buy ALL your paint to begin with. Buy a 5 gallon bucket - and you can paint right out of the bucket. It's cheaper by 5 gallons - then if you need more, buy gallons. Good luck - have fun - make lots of coffee!