Completely agree about the inspiration part. I can imagine the laughter between the two brothers as they watched early staged prototypes fail and water spewed out...very cool.

At most I'd spend ~2-3 hours a night, and we had build days on weekends.

The nice part was that it was nearly entirely on me. Didn't have to wait for other people, aside from some shipping.

Prototyping is definitely possible! Wish you the best as well!