The only thing I know about CMSs is what I just read from wikipedia.

I plan to have 'News' on the front page of my site like a lot of places do And when I post I want it to add about 5 - 6 articles before it stores old ones in an archive (which is also available for visitors to peruse.) If I wanted to use something of my own creation a 'simple' CMS if you will, would that be out of the question? Would this project become unrealistically large for such a simple need? I would use Wordpress or something similar if needed but I would absolutely love if creating something like was possible so I felt like I had complete design control over my web site.

In your opinions is something like what I describe possible for me to create from scratch by the end of this year knowing my programming knowledge currently amounts to zilch?

If you totally lost when it comes to coding then your going to be better off using a application that requires very little knowledge of php and html to build your site. You'll save yourself a lot of time and headaches taking this approach. You can start building your own custom scripts after you've done more research and have become familiar with basic website coding. CC has plenty of tools to help you get the job done and there's always a few users hanging around in the forum you can lean on if you get stuck.

Try out S-Drive Streams. You have a free account. Create a stream and embed in your web page. Update your news as often as you like.

Hmm. Can you expand on this? I would even consider Power Post as a CMS (if that's what it is) since it seems pretty simple which I like.

With S-Drive Streams can I pre-format the posts? Does it have an automatic archive feature?

I don't mind using tools but I do want to learn everything I need to to make a fully functioning site for myself. The main reason for that is I want to avoid bloat and but at the same time I want to be productive in creating and maintaining several sites hopefully starting by the new year. I am focusing on clean minimalist designs with just the essential functionality the website needs. I want my site to be attractive like a simple black dress rather than a wedding gown with a 40 foot train. I want it to have functionality that makes it easier for the viewer to acquire what they need from the site rather than having bells and whistles just because they are cutting edge or cool.

My first website that I'm learning with is a pure labour of love, an outlet for expressing myself. But then later endeavours will all be business oriented.

I would probably start with a responsive theme in the HTML editor. This will get you a working site that you can quickly alter with your own style. They have a few that are already pretty minimal and look great as is.

Yes. You can customize. Read up on it here and let me know if you need more info... http://www.coffeecup.com/sdrive/stream/