Mickey B,
Go with EXCAP232's advice. The one thing I would like to add, is to get an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly version) only if you're anxious to fly right away. If not, get a good kit. Sig, Great Planes, Carl Goldberg, and Midwest come to mind right away as good kit manufacturers with good plans and step-by-step instructions. People will differ with me about this, but I still say that the quality of ARF's (or BARF's as I call them) is way inferior to a good kit. And if you live in a part of the country where you have winter and can't fly anyway, building gives you a few months to imagine those pieces of wood in front of you, boring holes in the sky next Spring! You can't even put a price on that!