I know for sure that this will end up decent at best, but it will be a good learning experience like you said. Im just going to go for it and see how things turn out, maybe do a "Things I Did Right vs. Things I Did Wrong" type chart and see how i can improve everything.
I have the resources and the help from a professional wood worker to make this thing work...but I only have access to a shop twice a week and only for an hour and a half, so this is going to take a while (not saying its a bad thing, I just like to be able to work at any time).
Thanks for the help everyone.