What worked was starting near the bottom to get things going, then hold one hand on each side of the wallpaper palm to palm a foot or two away from the wall. When my hands got about two feet from the wall I moved in closer again. Pull with the wallpaper at about a 30 degree angle to the wall. Really you're pulling a lot more out than up. This is what really worked for me. When I pulled on opposite ends of the wallpaper it would tear. Anyway that took off the outer layer. To get the inner paper layer just mix some Dawn (blue) dish soap with water in a spray bottle. Squirt the paper and about 5 minutes later the stuff is ready to almost fall off the wall without a trace. As an added bonus I won't have to prime the walls since that's in good shape.
Tomorrow the baseboards are coming off, I'll patch small nail holes and start emptying out cabinets. With any luck we'll be finished with the plaster in the breakfast room before the weekend is over and I'll maybe start working on removing tiles. Because of schedule with someone I know with a trailer it may take too long to get the machine that removes thinset from concrete in. I may give the air chisel at Harbor Freight a try instead... just need to make sure it would survive the job. With a 4in blade it'd be a lot faster than going it with the 1" air hammer and I wouldn't be on my hands and knees the entire time.
I'm still working on it, but I'm hoping to donate all the old kitchen stuff (cabinets, sink, countertop, appliances minus the fridge) to Habitat. They have a group that can come in and remove everything. It's a total win / win because they do all the heavy lifting and do it a lot faster than I ever could, they get stuff for their store, and I get a tax writeoff. And it's the most environmentally conscious option since everything gets reused. I emailed the person on their website this afternoon. Hopefully they'll reply tomorrow.
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