Alas, that is for people with enough time on their hands. Building a blog-like homepage from scratch might be a lot of fun, but very time consuming, especially if you're a beginner. I agree with you, though. One would probably be happier doing it all by oneself since it gets that much better. It's like cooking versus eating ready made dishes.
EDIT: An alternative would be to use a blog software like
wordpress. I was actually recommended using this one quite some time ago by a friend. I might try it myself when I get a little more time on my hands.
There's nowhere I can't reach.