>I would really rather code this without a third party tool, if possible. I feel as though I am so close - but yet so far! I am going to keep banging away, but thanks anyway!
>

It's your choice; I feel that SDT has more than paid for itself many times over, in terms of providing a reliable mechanism to deploy, validate, repair and update files, as well as providing hooks to extend the functionality of the DBC in a consistent and well-accepted way.