1) What would be the best methods of perfecting my airmanship over the next year or so of hour building?
Bit of a contradiction there. Airmanship comes from experience; hour building is a way of cramming as much experience into as shorter time as possible to achieve an end result. More often that not it proves to be hour wasting because you gain the hours in your log book but learn little from them. It is exceedingly difficult to discipline yourself when you do not know what the required standard is, or how to achieve it. There is no substitute for good instruction; why not do an IR rather than bore holes in the sky? The end result will be a much higher standard and you could save money in the long term.