Like you, i am working on a big project and have a day job. That job is running my own steel company. I realy enjoy the learning and the problem solving. And we use the software in our office. It runs for months without glitches so i think its not that bad. And now i am building a web application for my clients. So yes, it is possible and it is fun. And sometimes it is hard. And if it fails, the next project will be better. Oh, i use Lisp and postgresql, that makes it even more fun.