Pete - I really hope we haven't scared you off. It's easy to hit a wall and shut down. You need to power through it, and make yourself and your project better.
A couple weeks ago, I had a large project in my cost accounting class where I made a variable-costing flexible budget for a manufacturing company (cash disbursements, expenses, pro forma income statements and balance sheets). Here's a small sample of the feedback I got from my prof on my first draft:
"Your formatting is terrible. Get rid of it. You are over purchasing by ignoring beginning inventory. You ignore accounts payable in cash disbursements. Again your format is bad. You missed depreciation in the S&A budget. So the budget is incomplete and that also throws off your cash budget. Again the cash budget is poorly formatted and incorrect. Remember this is more than just put it down. It has to communicate the details."
I had invested a ton of time and effort into the project, so this came as a gut punch to me. But, I realized he was right that it was terrible. So I threw the whole thing out, and started over from scratch. My prof said the finished draft looked "very professional."
One of the most important concepts in business decision-making is the idea of "sunk costs." The amount of time/effort/cash invested in a project is gone whether you continue with the project or not. It should have no impact on whether you should finish the project or scrap it and start over. Wherever you are, it's where you're going that matters, not where you've been. The worst thing you can do is let your vanity and ego prevent you from realizing (and correcting) your shortcomings.