Rich wrote:

Hi,

I have been living in my 80 year old house for about 1.5 years. The
previous owners decided to renew the bathroom by putting their version
of what looks like venetian plaster on the walls. It's got to go
(they did a terrible job). My question is - can I sand what's there a
bit and then skim coat the walls with joint compound, prime and paint
to "restore" the walls back to the drywall?

Thanks for the help.

Depends on how they did it - I think true venetian plaster requires a
wax coat - if so I'd start with a wax remover rather than gumming up the
sandpaper and leaving wax to repel the mud.