I admit I do not know how bad the winters are in Louisville, and you may not have bad days. If you have another plane to fly while you do it, I would say build a kit. It will teach you so much about the planes you love to fly.

Kit building is not really tough to do and some find it a lot of fun. I know available space and tools can be a problem for some. I do not have the best space ( dining room table/ kitchen floor,bar)but building my Tiger II was a good thing and it is a fantastic plane to fly as a second. I have done a couple mods to mine now a couple years later and it is still one of my favorites.

By no means am I saying anything bad about ARF I love em. Just throwing out an idea.