Thanks again for all the advice and hopefully I will have something new to present soon enough!
you're certainly a good sport about it, not everyone takes criticism well, or even cares as much as you seem to about their pet's habitats. for that, I give you kudos. And it's not easy to build that first paludarium, it's a lot different than a fish tank and can seem daunting, but it's so worth it. If I had it my way, I wouldn't have another aquarium again, I'd only have paludariums.
Don't wait to present something... asking questions and showing progress along the way has been really helpful for me here... there are a lot of simple solutions to the issues you face, and we're all here to help.
suggestions:
take a loot at the techniques discussed at Brian's Tropicals. He has some nice ideas about tank design. http://www.brianstropicals.com/building.html
investigate cork bark. it's cheap and so nice to work with.
http://www.herpsupplies.com/product.cfm?groupid=7370&id=Cork-mini
and not to drive you away from this site, because honestly I wish this section had a lot more people, but check out dendroboard too, there are some nice build threads there... although I think those guys get too caught up in their great stuff foam loving. http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/members-frogs-vivariums/
and I guess that leads me to my final suggestion for today, in your first terrarium/paludarium, I would avoid using great stuff foam. it is cool for some things, but there's a lot to go wrong, and it's a very lengthy process. materials like cork and wood and stone are a lot easier to get started with.