Put warm water into a spray bottle. Spray texture, will have to experiment with how much water your spray on each area, let it soak for a few minutes. Then scrape with a drywall knife (6") not a putty knife. Should remove texture if it is Joint Compound. Try go get away with using as little water as possible to avoid soaking drywall paper.

I have this same problem! My walls I believe are painted, but could it be the actual drywall? (I don't know much about this stuff) The whole house has it, even the ceilings, (white) and it looks like it was kind of sponged on (swirls and bumps). I really want to get rid of it in a couple rooms. Someone told me I'd have to sand it all down. Is there an easier way? Thanks!

PattyB's suggestion will not work if it's plaster and not joint compound as she said. I have heard from several people who had varying degrees of success with this method. If it doesn't work for you, you will either have to sand the walls down or have a skim layer of drywall/joint compound put over top. Even if the removal method works for you you will likely need to sand.

I purchased a sanding attachment for my shop-vac that has a hose, two different size connectors, a sanding pad with holes for airflow and 1 piece of sanding screen. I used it to sand patching and paint build-up this past weekend and I found it worked quite well. I had very little clean up and found the suction was adequate after I had put in two new filters (the one around the blower is the most important). One thing I did find, though, is that you would likely need medium and a fine screen to get a good finish suitable for painting.

When all is said and done, though, it might be a lot quicker and easier to get a drywaller or plasterer in to put a skim coat on to flaten the walls. That's probably your best bet for a good finish.

Good luck

can i just put up 1/4" drywall over the existing drywall, screw it on, mud it up and repaint?

Why go to all that work and cost when you could just skim the walls and be done. Plus what about your woodwork when you put up the new drywall.

is there a way to skim the walls myself and not screw it all up. i mean is there a way to get great results with out hireing someone

If you are very handy yes, but there is an art to doing this well.

what is skimming?

It is putting a thin coat of drywall mud over the surface of the wall with a wide broadknife.