Welcome to another fellow Wisconsite! This hobby is little addicting and a lot of fun. If you're patient willing to learn, you'll do just fine.
BTW, when did we start sayin "yall" up here??? lol
Are you guys long lost brothers??? Lol
Welcome to brewing, you sound like you're going about in a similar way I did....research plan, research more and plan some more, then jump right in.
Good luck. There are a lot of open research on HBT.