Ok, I'm sure that the right thing to do is get it right the first time.
Have fun on your quest! I also enjoy the book/reading side of several
hobbies. For me, that's a large part of my hobby life. The
book/learning thing is a whole different track than my comments about
getting something working. I'd be tempted to just buy a dual band
vertical at one of the ham sites, or swap meets around whereever you
are, and mount that on the tower.

I don't know of any DIY's that don't need a bit of tweeking/tuning to
get working, or at least not with me putting them together.

If it's about $$, the ground plane bothers you, and you only want to go
up the tower once, I'm out of suggestions, perhaps TV?
but I still stand by my statement of having fun!