Greg - I'm also building a Spring Run and nearing the end (working on the hatches this weekend). I've had a great experience, which was only moderately frustrating at times! Joe Greenly from Redfish is great about answering questions, and as you've already seen from your post - there's lots of others who can offer expert advice.

My approach to feeling semi-confident with each step in the process was to read up on the step I was on as well as the next step, but not worrying too much beyond that at the moment. I consulted multiple sources - Joe's instructions that came with the Spring Run plans, the book "Kayak Craft" by Ted Moores, this forum, Nick Schade's many you tube videos, Valclav's website, and blogs from the many others who have taken on this project. As someone else mentioned, there are multiple ways to accomplish any of the steps you are on, so after consuming all of the info I cared to read, I then decided how I was going to proceed.

The trickiest part of the Spring Run for me (so far) was contorting the shear strips at the bow and stern (I built entirely without staples). I have since read about using a heat gun to ease the process and that's something I would do differently next time (if my wife ever lets me build another one that-is!). Enjoy your project - it really is a lot of fun.

Tim