Replacing sky... I did search back posts...

Question

First off I'm clearly a beginner with this software.  This shouldn't be so hard because I've done it once before but sadly I didn't save the directions I found online.  Today I've tried a bazillion directions including this forum and I'm clearly doing something wrong. 
I have a pix of a house and a pix of a beautiful sunset and I want to replace the dull sky on the house pix with the sky from the sunset pix.  First I tried this method:
http://www.digital-photography-school.com/how-to-replace-a-sky-in-photoshop
but when I take the eraser and erase the parts of the sky that overlap the house if I go above the roof line of the house it erases the sky too.  Hey as a kid I was never good about coloring in the lines so this method just isn't working.
So I thought this method where you select the sky with the magic wand and delete it would be far easier:
http://photographyofgrace.com/Filehost/Downloads/ReplacingASkywithPSE7.pdf
However..... If you go to page 3 of this tutorial you will see that one of the layers had the magic wand used, they selected the sky, deleted it and now its transparent, i.e. has the checkerboard pattern where the sky use to be.  The checkerboard pattern is both in the big pix and the little one to the right in the layers area.  Well here is my problem, when I do it I can see the checkerboard pattern in the small pix on the right in the layers area but when I click on that layer in the big picture there is no checkerboard pattern.  Doesn't matter what order the 2 layers are in (i have the original layer which is locked and the background copy which has the checkerboard pattern on it and its unlocked)  When I click on the copy which on the right is checkerboarded (transparent) its NOT transparent in the big picture. 
So when I take my pretty sunset picture and try and drop it in to the house with the checkerboard sky it just covers the whole thing, its not filling in just the transparency its just covering the entire house. 
I'm almost in tears, I've read everything I can, followed the directions on about 10 tutorials on this and not once can I make this magic wand method work.  I'm in tears and have been trying to make this work since 11 am.  Again the eraser method is too hard with the lines of the house and trees and I keep erasing the darn sky.
Can someone please help me do this.
Thanks for ANY help.
Susan

Answer 1

Your first tutorial link is not doable in Elements as it uses a couple of methods that are not available in Elements...in particular blending via the layer's style panel to bring back in the underlying image using the brightness stops to define what comes through.
If you have a blown out (white) sky you can use that to your advantage. I used Photoshop so my screen grabs will look different than an Elements user interface but I only used methods that are possible using Elements.
1. Open your image and open an image with the sky you want to add.
I'll use a couple of my photos for the example.
Start photo....dreary winter sky.
Here is the shot with the sky that I want to use.
2. (A.)You want the start photo active for this first part so make sure it is the document that you are currently working on.
    (B.)Go to the menu bar and choose Select<All. This will select the entire image.
    (C.)Go to the menu bar and choose Edit<Copy. This will copy the entire image into your clipboard.
3. (A.) Create a solid color fill adjustment layer over your start photo. (Don't worry about color. It's not going to matter.)
    (B.)Alt click on the solid color adjustment layer's mask. This will make your document go white as the focus will be on the adjustment layer's mask. (If          you are on a Mac, you will Opt click instead of alt click.)
    (C.)Go to the menu bar and choose Edit<Paste. This will paste your image into the mask.
*Shortcuts:
Ctrl + A on PC; Cmd + A on Mac = Select All.
Ctrl + C on PC; Cmd + C on Mac = Copy.
Ctrl + V on PC; Cmd + V on Mac = Paste.
Note: You will see a grayscale version of your image. (Masks only "see" grayscale" so the colors are converted to their brightness values.) Above is my start image pasted directly into a mask.
4. With the mask still the focus, call up the levels command. You can call it up from the menu or use the shortcut. Ctrl + L on PC; Cmd + L on Mac. The goal is to push the image using the levels command to pure black and white.
Here I have pushed the image as solid black and white as I dare without losing detail,
Note: I am using a red color fill adjustment layer so it's visual obvious that I am looking in the mask. (Using a black or white solid color adjustment layer can lead to confusion because if you click away from the mask for any reason the focus moves back to the image.)
5. Now, you will need to paint out any items you did not get using the levels command. You can lasso and fill, use a paint brush with black, or use the gradient tool as I used to eliminate the snow covered ground where I do not want my new sky to appear. (Note: If you haven't guessed white paint can be used to include more items to be included. Gray areas will be semi-transparent. Think feather and transition.
Above I used a black foreground to transparent gradient to the mask to include the ground.
6. Switch to your sky photo then copy it into your clipboard.
7. Paste your sky photo into the document you are working. It should be at the top of the layers stack. If it isn't at the top of the stack in the layer's palette, drag it to the top.
8. Your sky layer should be directly over the solid color adjustment layer. You are going to create a clipping mask by clicking on the new sky layer and pressing ctrl + G. If on a Mac, you will press Cmd + J.
*Additional info on clipping masks a.ka. clipping groups.
http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/learn/Photoshop_Elements/layers/layer_groups_clippi ng_masks/1_layer_groups_clipping_masks.htm
Here is the result with the sky clipped above.
9. Optional: To give more umph to the image.
   (A.) Create a composite of everything you have done so far. Create a blank layer at the top of your layers stack and press ctrl + shift + alt + E if on              Windows. If on Mac, the shortcut is cmd + shift + opt + E.
   (B.) Change the composite layer's blend mode to either overlay or soft light and adjust the opacity to taste.
The above has the contrast and blending I wanted but seems a little dark for my taste. I'll use blend modes to take care of that.
Optional Step: Since it turned out a little darker than I wanted I made another composite of what I have thus far using Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E. That's Cmd + Shift + Opt + E if you are on a Mac. I put this composite into Screen blend mode and put it's opacity at 63%.
Note: If that would have been a body of water instead of a field with snow behind the trees, I would have added some sky reflections...