Fireplace Remodel

My husband and I bought our first home 2 years ago.   We bought a foreclosure because at the time that is all we could afford in a good neighborhood. If my husband really knew what visions and projects I had for our home, he would have never bought it and rented for the rest of our lives. :) I knew that most of the projects were my idea, so I needed step up and do most of them. I really had no idea how to remodel.  We had a lot of trial and error and youtube was my friend.  The first thing I did was scrap the popcorn ceilings.  We have a 1990's home. Who in the right mind sprayed popcorn on the ceilings in the 90's. Some crazy contractor that probably had left overs from the 70's. ;) I actually dry scraped the ceilings because it left a orange peel texture and it looks nice. The only downfall was I was blowing white stuff out of my nose for days, even with a mask on.  The next thing I did was paint.  I painted the whole house, top to bottom.  Paint makes a big difference in a house.  The other thing we found out that makes a huge difference is the lighting.  We replaced all of our gold fixtures to new dark bronze.  We are almost done with our home.  I wished I took more pictures along our journey of remodeling.  I do have pictures for a few projects and this mantel is one of them.  I will post step by step instructions on how we made this mantel soon . It really was easy and it looks so pretty. I even tiled it all by myself without my husband.  This was the first thing I have ever tiled.  I am telling you youtube has so many things to offer and teaching me how to tile was one of them.