my thoughts so far

i carnt really give you any solid advice in answer to your question
but im sure your perseverance will pay off... even if your first complete track takes you a year then that is a massive achievement...
im not musically gifted infact i know very little about any thing other than i have rhythm and good at mixing beats...

there is no 1 way of doing things and thats were you become the creative artist...make sounds what you think sound good and thats your take on the relationship of kick and bass working together
start small... like a 16 intro with a 32 bar verse of something your familiar with and try to replicate it

i think you might be getting to lost in the whole fine tuning & mixdown of the trak cause it will eventually become a muddy mess

so try

making raw notes / sounds for each of your sections of your track... that way you will hear clearly the relationship between each instrument
only then do you start addin devices and sidechaining to actually get the sound you want from each instrument
and then once your happy with the sound
arrange it in arrangement view this will give it the structure you want

hope this is of some help