Sorry, had to head to a meeting so I didn't get to finish my post completely.
Basically, as others have said, patience is key. It's going to kill you to always look in the fermenter. It's going to drive you nuts to wait for the beer to really bottle condition. If you don't want to be disappointed, give the beer time to do it's thing.
Also, if you are going to buy a new brew pot, imo, don't start small and then spend more money moving up. Get enough to start out doing full boils. Unless you always plan on brewing indoors, on your stove, a 5 gallon pot or less, imo, is a waste of money. That is if you plan on ever moving your brewing out of the kitchen. Even an 8 gallon pot would be enough for a full boil, then worst case, if you moved up, it would probably still make a good hot liqour tank, but best would be 10 gallon.
Then especially watch your fermentation temps. Depending on where you are, even a gallon jug of ice next to the fermenter with a towel over it could be enough. (I always have a cool basement). So yeah, patience and fermentation control are probably the best things to watch.