I am asking here, because I thought expert do-it-yourselfers, might have something better.
For a bedroom that has lumpy plaster walls, with wallpaper over, plus someone painted over the wallpaper.
I know that optimally, the walls either need to be taken done, w new plasterboard, or remove the wallpaper, repair the plaster if possible & paint.
But both those options are way more work than is possible for this room at this time.
So for a cosmetic fix, what would you do?
Texturizing the walls & paint, or wallpaper over?
Fire, @emeraldkity4 , fire. 
Paneling?
Have you tried steam on the wallpaper?
There are no internal shutoffs to anything? You shouldn’t have to shut the entire building off to do some plumbing. Maybe you can add some.
Can you still use a wrench or pair of vice grips to open and close the valve?
The issue isn’t turning off the water to the home, the issue is that this lever is between City water line and the home. It is the lever that turns off water to the home. We cannot take off the piece without water flooding in from the City water line.
But, believe it or not… I called the City Water Department. After 20 minutes on hold the Customer Service lady came on the line and said she will send the guy out to shut off the City valve (I have no idea where it is). This will stop the water coming down the line to our house. Then we are responsible for replacing the main shut off valve at our property (right next to curb area in front of the house). She gave me a special number to call back where I do not have to wait on hold. They will come back out and turn on the main line.
Pheww… dodged a major bureaucratic bullet !!!
Reason it broke is that it was not the type with a full ball lever. It had an old fashioned type of stem sticking up that you turn with a special tool. Luckily the tool was at the house here. We could continue to try to grab a small piece of the bronze with some vise grips, but it’s a really dangerous solution. Since we need to turn water off and on quite a lot to replace the plumbing and do the new plumbing in the garage we need to change this out to a solid full lever.
Emerald kity…
Tear off as much of the old wall paper as possible, hopefully the outer layer. Then pay a guy to come in and put a new layer of drywall mud and texture on the wall to get a smooth wall.
Will there be heating/cooling vents in the garage-turned-into-living-space area?
I’m not sure if you can see the ducting that is running across the ceiling in the garage area. It is going to be very easy to splice in new ducting for the heat/AC in the new rooms. But, the ducts will probably have to be ceiling ducts, which are not very efficient.
Very exciting!!! Views look great! I’m trying to get a sense of where that giant window is compared to the rest of the [former] garage. Will you be able to retain that window for the bedroom downstairs?
I think this house is going to be your most profitable project yet! That additional square footage really takes it into a whole different level!
I seem to be the only one who loved the garage door /patio door look. I found a VCBO house with that lower level exit to patio. Looked like a million bucks. Rental was gone before we got our stuff together…many restaurants have these.
But yes, use the existing driveway as a patio and then decks. No use investing in retaining walls.
@coralbrook, have you thought about what you might do with the paved driveway leading down to what will be a patio? I was thinking that you might want to leave it in order to have some off-street emergency parking–they’d better have a functioning emergency brake! 
--but maybe install a couple of sturdy planters to delineate the patio. And perhaps finish the patio area with something? Tiles, or concrete that looks like tiles or slate, if you know what I mean?
I have another choice which my HVAC guy recommends highly… I can get the wall convection heaters that just need to be plugged in. They are extremely energy efficient, are thermostat controlled and can be put on a timer. More costly solution because I would need 3 of them.
In order to get approval for the garage conversion I have to keep the driveway and parking spot at bottom of driveway. I may fix up some cracks in the driveway but dont really know what I am going to do to beautify the patio/parking area.
I do know that i will be putting a low fence or something around the bottom for psychological reasons. Noone in their right mind would back a car down there now because there is nothing to stop you from going off the edge. I say that and my carpenter backed his car down there to park the other day. He’s crazy
The window is about halfway in the garage. But after I put framing up for bedroom it will end up at left end of family room, looking out towards deck. I cannot put any doors or windows at right end of family room because the AC compressor eyesore is out there.
We will be adding a 6 ft window in bedroom area
“but dont really know what I am going to do to beautify the patio/parking area.”
is there a hose bib down there? I’d resurface the patio, put in a low 3ft wooden wall , a couple of big potted trees a small table + chairs + umbrella from costco.
“the AC compressor eyesore is out there”
cant you erect a tall, narrow fence, kind of like what is used to hide garbage cans?
Then continue the fence across the lower edge of the concrete area, after dropping it down to a 3’ or so height?
Can you move the compressor?
Not going to move the compressor, that would be a large cost because it has a custom concrete base built into the slope. But, I can definitely do the fence idea. My saying that I have to use all the time “It is what it is”
Drawing my plans for the garage conversion to discuss with the draftsman tomorrow. Had an idea… Maybe I can take those expensive triple pane patio sliders from living room and use them downstairs in the garage door opening. That would save a little money that I can spend for a really impressive wall opening configuration upstairs - where it will be noticed.
@coralbrook, are yougoing to preserve any kind of storage area downstairs? To me, a long narrow windowless room with shelving on the “dead” side of the downstairs would be valuable.
On the driveway/ patio, you could install, just on the flat part, concrete pavers or some other material that can be used for driveways but that would read as “patio” and not “driveway.” Then, for staging purposes, you could block off the flat part from the steep driveway with high planters or potted trees or something. You can rent them for not too much. I’d be inclined to use the same kind of fencing on the edge of the patio/ driveway as on the new deck.