You're on the right track! I simply built two 4'x8' shop tables (see pic below) and covered them with 3/4 ply then a sheet of the buffalo board or chip board easy for pins to push into. You could cut one to the same size as your top for a custom look. You may want to paint a coat of cheap white latex on it that helps you find things on it because it's rather dark in color.

It's best to keep things simple low cost and just buy what you need to get the job at hand done and try not to reinvent the wheel. The tools will start to fill your shop as your building skills grow and you decide what you need for more complex projects. Things like scroll saws, belt sanders and the all useful Dremel tool are huge time savers. I just bought a small air die grinder with small sanding disks what a wonderful tool (see pic).

Some of the basics things you'll need are sanding blocks you can make these yourself in many sizes or buy them nice extruded aluminum ones from Great Planes, lots of sandpaper many grits, Xacto blades and handles, thin blade pull saw (see pic below) , Epoxy brushes, T-pins and small clamps can never have enough clamps cloths pins can help too and make some long sand bags to hold wing sheeting down. Try Harbor Freight for clamps and good affordable tools (many mentioned above) for your shop. harborfreight.com (they also have stores in some cities.)

The very best advice I could provide you even before you start building is to search the AMA and your area for a flying club. You can lean a lot from like minded guys and many love to help the new flyers. Having a nice shop filled with tools is great but once your plane is built it's best to keep it off the building table. So to prevent the events you described with your first experience with RC planes get some help and learn to fly with some proper training or the same thing will likely happen again. This is a skilled learning curve and it takes time to build the reflexes to control the model. Spending time on a quality RC model airplane PC simulators (not video games, I like the Great Planes RealFlight) will help build them skills very quickly minimizing risk to plane, property and others. Welcome back to this wonderful hobby and good luck.