Dear People Who Owned This House,

Hmmm...Looks like a classic "latex paint over an oil-based paint with no special primer in between". At least, that's what happened to us when we moved into a new freshly painted apartment-we peeled all the paint right off the walls.

I see Jesus! :)

edited to add: It looks more like Cap'n Crunch when you stare at it a while.

I think the painter treated all the walls with TSP for good measure. (I have no idea what that is, I just know what it is called.) Maybe consult a paint store (not the Depot), and see what they say? Heck, show them the picture!

We had this. I actually could have shared pictures up until yesterday, when I finally basecoated the nightmare wall. My husband scrubbed it off -- a lot off warm water and a green scrubby pad. It was acrylic over oil. We even had that same LOVERLY yellow color, though our green was of the screaming electric variety.

KILZ ...it is a primer that works wonders. Check it out..it's saved me complete breakdown a time or 2.

Yeah just sand it as best you can, then a REALLY good primer. Maybe even a couple coats. I had that issue with my old kitchen cabinets. It was fine after a heavy duty sanding and primer.

I'm sorry -- don't hit me! I would totally bring you beers and scrub, were this not an internet conversation and we not complete strangers miles and states apart. I second the Kilz. We have Kilz'd the kitchen half to death. Works wonders. Just sand it back to even and Kilz it. Watch out, though, that green may be lead-based (ducks and runs).

Ours were exposed for at least a month and we found out yesterday that the 8 year old has an IQ of 144. You have my permission to consider lead poisoning an Old Wive's Tale, at least for the duration of remodeling hell.

Just for you, I have posted a picture of my own personal Wall of Hell. We won't get to this one before Friday. This is the "small wall" behind the appliances. I had a 12 footer to do last weekend.
www.flickr.com/photos/11403558@N00/414199441/

Apparently the people who owned your house used to live here too, as I have the exact same peeling grey/yellow atrocity. EVERYTHING has a layer of yellow... walls, doors, trim, cabinets, window frames; I can't imagine what it all looked like... it must have been a yellow hell!

I started peeling the paint in my kitchen a year ago... I don't have the stress of needing to get it done and move, but the fact that it's still unfinished makes me want to cry.

I have the same thing in my house. 1925 bungalow...people did crack back in the day, I think.

What I've done with good results is sand the bejezuz out of it, primer it with two layers of Kilz, then paint like normal.

At least you don't have layers of paint over layers of wallpaper. My little house is trying to make me insane, too. It basically took my boyfriend and me a month to scrape down the wallpaper in the living room...it was on the ceiling, too.