I have a project that needs to use dotnetnuke as the back-end administration for the website.
I am pretty new to dotnetnuke and have only spent 2 days looking at what the framework can do.
The website is intended to plug directly into the DB rather than use the modules on the dotntnuke website.
Actually the included modules do not match what is required and it looks like I will have to either extend or
create custom modules of my own. I am an experienced web developer but relatively new to ASP.NET (2yrs).
I have a few questions that need to be answered and wondered if anyone could help.

1. To install dotnetnuke understand how it works and to run creating sample modules how long would you estimate?
2. I see you can add skins to dotnetnuke. However can I actually change the layout of the system to meet my needs
or is it better just to use the DAL and write my own custom administaration area?
3. Do you know of any examples that I can see with an admin area that is not like the example starter kit?
4. To create a website that consists of 3 different types of links, 4 different types of articles, navigation and search facility on a site.
How long would it take to create your own custom modules? I know this is a ridiculous question as you don't know
the ins and outs  but i am just looking for an estimated time.

Can anyone help.