Removal of Texture

At some point in the history of this South Philadelphia house, some one decided that it would be a good idea to cover the walls of the living room with a thick heavy texture.  It looked like this all of the room...

The wife and children went out of town for a week and we got to work.  The idea was to scrape the high points off then skim coat the room with some joint compound.  However, this texture was made of mortar or heavy plaster, and it did not come off easily.  The wall section under the stairs had some wallpaper under the texture.  So, the paper came off with the texture.  That small area was not a problem at all.

However, the other walls were not so easy. We tried to remove the texture with very little success.

So, after 2 complete skim coats all of the walls in the living room, sanding, priming and painting, it looked like this...