DIY Disaster? I hope not :)

I've been watching a TON of HGTV lately. There is a show DIY disaster. With all of our plans for upgrades on the house and knowing some of our previous mistakes in our other home in Winchester, I hope we don't encounter any DIY disasters. We are trying to do many of the projects ourselves and well...it's a learning process. We are trying to use what little skills we have where we can, learn some of what we can on the fly and the other things we just AREN'T comfortable with....seek help! This next item was totally NOT on the to do list but we found a deal at home depot and fell in love with it and the project fell into place.

**beware many photos to follow**
1/2 Bath Upgrades!
Below is a picture of the types of counters we have throughout the entire house. The kitchen and all bathrooms have the very same counters. They aren't bad for what they are so the biggest thing we were going to do to the 1/2 bath was a nicer faucet, paint and some wainscotting with chair railing.

No this picture below is not a dressing room somewhere, it is my bathroom with the hideous cheapest dressing room like light fixtures we've ever seen...these have to go...so remember them so you can appreciate the after picture. Here is the beginning of the addition of the chesnut paint. We taped off the area where the chair railing would go and the wainscoting below.

Getting closer....

Now here is the reason for the new LOVE of our 1/2 bath. Behold the beauty of a new granite vanity top and brushed chrome faucet! **aaahhh**

more painting...Alli had to get in on the action of the pictures :) Wow her hair was looking rough that day.

Remember my hideous lights...these are SO much better! Here is where one of our DIY disasters took place. We went through two lights before we settled on this one. Before we changed lights, the old ugly gave plenty of light in our 1/2 bath even with the darker wall color. The first light we bought only lit up the mirror and didn't project any light towards the toilet area....not good. So I thought maybe we needed lights that faced up. Ben changed the fixture to face up. It helped with the lighting some but the fixture looked STUPID faced the opposite direction it was meant to. So off to the store I went in search for a light that faced up. I couldn't find what I wanted in the brushed chrome. So then I found this one that faced down but it didn't come with globes so I could pick my own. I found clear globes with some air bubble design and they work perfectly! Now we have a nicely lit half bath.

Here you can see front to back the much better updated upper half of the room.

Let's basque in the beauty just a little longer!

We have since changed our plans as far as the wainscoting goes. We are going to do a fake board and batten look, much like this post here. This will be a much easier installation and Ben won't have to worry about cutting around the pipes behind the toilet. Soon I will be able to show everyone the finished product. We are still working on a plumbing connection issue that developed with the new sink on this vanity top. This vanity has very screwy and close together pipes...so Ben has had to make a couple trips to home depot.

As soon as our beloved tax return comes in, we plan on taking care of some of our wishful to do list:
Kitchen- new counters, paint cabinets white, new sink and faucet, tile floors oh and pot lights in ceiling!
1/2 bath and laundry- also getting tile floors
entire downstairs - chair railing and crown molding
Master bedroom - fresh paint and crown molding
Hallway and 3rd bedroom - fresh paint, chair railing in hallway
Spare bath - tile
Master bath - oh the plans we have for this room (all depending on how much $$ we have to spend and what deals we can find at the discount tile stores) tile floors, tile surround on current tub/shower combo, new vanity (hopefully granite or marble), paint wood on vanity complementary color of the vanity top, new mirrors to get rid of the one big massive mirror we have and new lighting!!!

Our major projects are obviously devoted to the kitchen and master. We are hooking up with some of Ben's co-workers to get major discounts on some labor for the areas we need "help." This mainly relates to tile and electrical. We could do the tile ourselves but it is so time consuming and well...we'll see how it goes. Straight cuts are easy...its the areas where you need to make curved cuts that worry us. Long post, I know, but the family that lives far away will appreciate the updates and pictures. :)