Slow Going: Cork Wall Part 1

Ugh...when we purchased this house I thought one of the easiest rooms to make over would be the smallest of the bedrooms:

It, unlike most of the house, did not have wallpaper or wood paneling. It actually had paint...on three of the walls. The four wall was covered with cork. When we were looking at the house, I considered keeping the cork:

This was because I couldn't see the hole in the cork with all of the old owner's furniture in the room. This hole wasn't all that big, but it was pretty ugly:

Also, once all of the old furniture was moved out of the room, we noticed that the room had a smell and it was being kept there by the cork. It just had to go. I thought this was going to be simpler than wall paper, so I took a try last weekend:

Needless to say, I didn't get very far. The cork kicked up a ton of awful dust and I left the room coughing and very unhappy. Well, a trip to the hardware store later, I am now equipped with a dust mask:

I know...I'm a sexy beast. Armed with this I got a bit further:

I thought it would go pretty quickly, but sadly there is a quite a bit of glue and nails that prevent me from just pulling off the panels. They break into into pieces and make a huge mess:

Well, that was as far as I got. I had to stop because it is has been really hot here lately, and with a dust mask it was unbearable. The cork wall will live to see another day and I will have to just try again tomorrow. I guess this is what I get for thinking this would be an easy job. Ugh.