Making a Mandolin

I will be using this place to document my first attempts at making mandolins, first from kits and then hopefully carving them from wood myself. I have been talking with Roger Siminoff http://www.siminoff.net/ about his kits and what parts/tools I need to get started. I will be ordering one of his kits eventually, but I have already ordered a kit from International Violin http://www.internationalviolin.com/ which I will build first. This kit is a very simple and amazingly inexpensive (around $100), and I think it will be a big benefit to gain experience with something like this, before I dive into one of Roger's more complicated F5 mandolin kits.