If you want to learn more about building off of the SNAP design, there's no need to re-invent the wheel through trial and error. Here are some very good write-ups on several variants of the SNAP design. Alternatively, you can also read through any/all of Carbon's homemades in the Homemade directory.
True, I just find a lot of these are a bit overkill for what I'm looking to do. I will certainly be taking from these once I "graduate." Though I find starting from the ground up lets me discover reasons for doing things certain ways that may be taken for granted by other people.