[lettie]

I have a steam stripper, if you need it Atarah. When you've stripped your walls, go and fill any small cracks with polyfilla before you start. Don't get the ready mixed stuff, as it is too thick, get the powder that you make up yourself. Mix a bucket of watery paste, and paste it directly to the wall, leave it for a short while (your pasted paper will stick better and it will prevent the plaster from soaking up the paste from the paper) and Cazzer is right, use a plumb line to get your first piece up straight, I have one of those you can borrow too, if you need it.
Hang your first piece of paper close to a corner, and leave about half an inch overlapping the corner onto the adjacent wall. Leave enough length for trimming at the ceiling and floor. Hang your paper from the ceiling and brush down in all directions, this should free any trapped air. Also when papering around sockets, turn off the electricity, loosen the face plate of the socket, paper directly over it, then make diagonal cuts from the centre to each corner, trim it and tuck the margin of the paper behind the face plate and retighten, wipe any paste off your socket with a cloth before switching your electric back on. Can you tell my dad used to be a decorator yet!!!!