I almost have the entire game up and running and it's much more promising than I was expecting.
The last issue I seem to be having is with the visual overhaul. I installed the 800+mb compliation which I thought included everything to get the water/sky/plants looking like the screenshots. When I tried to load the game, all of the indoor environments looked fanastic but the outdoors looked the same as it did before. I then downloaded the plant/flora replacement and the grass and landscape by eloth and I get the grass but nothing else. When I checked the data files I get a message saying that MorroblivionGrassMod is not a valid plugin.
Everything else is good as far as i can tell so if I can get this last piece working i'll forever love you guys. :) Thanks in advance.

Are you using Archive
Are you using Archive invalidation (e.g., BSA redirction in OBMM)? Check and see if your files from Eloth's VO are installed in the correct location (In data/textures) etc., and not under oblivion/textures or some other random path.
You should atleast use OBMM or Wrye Bash (preferred) to install mods - using the launcher is just not enough if you want to get good at using mods.