energie:
An aviation career is definitely a labour of love for most of us. If I didn't enjoy it, I sure couldn't have jumped through all those hoops to get where I am today.
As was said above, 1,000 hours will not get you into an airline. It will take far more than that based on current projections. Don't sell flight instruction short as a way of beginning to build some hours. Will 3,000 hours in a C150 get you into AC / WJ / SSV / AT et al? Probably not, but there's no reason why it can't get you on the road. Lot's of us have instructing time and are in the airlines (myself included).
You sound like an intelligent individual who's capable of making good decisions, but be very careful about going to work for any operators that want you to work for free, live in the hangar etc. Any outfit that isn't willing to pay a wage that will at least allow you to house, feed and cloth yourself locally, is not worth working for, for the simple reason that you can't tell where else they may be cutting corners. There are plenty of small aircraft operators who understand that the best way to stay in business is to spend the money it takes to operate safely. The minute you allow someone to take advantage of you, you're opening the door to accepting other opportunities to put yourself at unnecessary risk.
Good luck!
Jeff