You are much more courages than myself LOL! I would opt to have someone else do any kind of work on my instrument due to my own laziness (and lack of confidence on guitar maitenance,) but sounds like your ambition has really gotten you to the result you were searching for.

That is something that is a bit overlooked honestly, as most people run into this problem without addressing the fact that is might be the guitar that needs some work done to it.

Best of luck and great job on solving the problem yourself!