Advise for dumb old man

[blksprk]

My personal preference is not to use kitchens, let me explain (you may already know it, but its worth explaining in case you dont):

when you build something into a rom using a kitchen, its there till you flash over it, so if you add something that in the end you find useless your stuck with it until you reflash. I personally love No2Chems roms, they are known for there clean and simple function. DCDs are also very good but lack some basic functions out of the box that I preffer to have built in(being able to mount the memory card like a flash drive, SIP setting, Font tools, stuff like that). If you go this route you have two options, install the cabs by hand, there available all over the place, search on google for ppc freeware, literally thousands of hits. you can also automate this by using a rom that is UC compliant (Both DCD and No2Chems are), more on that here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=366337
but thats just my two bits, helps avoid the whole conflict thing

as for interfaces, check out either pointui home or Mobile Shell by spb, both are outstanding programs, can be a little heavy resource wise but worth it if you want something that works without a lot of tweaking.

Oh ya, and welcome aboard