@HeadScratcher I totally agree with @rlkoshak
I want to add that as a beginner you might want your “step 2” to be something that teaches you about the possibilities of openHAB and how things like “items” and “rules” work. To that goals I’d suggest to look into one of the easier Tutorials and just play around with the results a bit. See here for a list: http://docs.openhab.org/tutorials/index.html#community
My personal favorite in terms of learning different aspects of openHAB without being dependent on certain hardware is: Speedtest-cli Internet Up-/Downlink Measurement Integration - however I have to state that it was written by myself, so I might be biased 