I had originally thought to do the same, but found it easier to use the samples as a model as I built my own app. If you want exactly what is in a sample, then are willing to build it might work, but in most cases I found I was doing too much clean-up when doing deletes.
There is tons of good info in the documentation, on the forums, and the video help on building an app, but there is a learning curve. My suggestion is to start by installing a few of the samples and seeing how the designer corresponds to the user experience in operation or test mode.
