About double-butted vs plain spokes...thanks for those ideas and thoughts; I appreciate them.
I think I read somewhere that it's as easy (or easier) to build with the DB spokes.
The basic spoke cost isn't such a big issue. If you check my other thread on 'Spoke Source' you can see that (since I'm in Canada) the shipping cost can be as much as the cost for the spokes themselves.
All 'food for thought'.
If I really want to practice, I can just unlace and rebuild one of the rims, re-using the spokes. If I get bored, I may well do that!