After a break, I am back at work on the website. I currently have all but a couple pages linked into the menu and the new site. In other words, I'm in what I would consider the "home stretch". Below is the current to-do list (with completed things removed)... and it looks SO much better than the previous ones, I have to say. I literally have 9-10 things left to do before I can move on to other (more fun) things! I'm on track to have the entire thing done by February.. and at this point, I won't have any surprising things that may take more time than budgeted (all those are already done).
Summary: the site is 100% safe to browse and explore now, because everything is at least linked in (page-wise). The major things left are fixing links, color, and featured pics on all 780 ish posts, and writing, organizing, and adding the (last) new section.
Just as an aside.. to give you an idea of the work that's gone into this... without counting the new section (which is still in progress) - I have added 69 brand new "landing" pages to the website, and edited/reorganized another approximately 90 pages. Also, the category and organization of the website is 95% done - only thing I still need to do is a final check that it's absolutely correct. That does not include the blog posts (of which there are around 780 to do quick edits on to make sure all their links and colors are okay for the new site) and, as I already mentioned - the new section, which will add probably another 5-10 pages.
Wow! So much work! Well done!