Joomla 4.2.2 programmer

I am a mediocre PHP developer. I am trying to learn Joomla 4.2.2 and I have spent 12 hours trying to get the front page to work.
Your job will be to get a front page working for me, AND 1 other ---------- thing fancy or complete. These will just be "models" for me to see what you did. And then hopefully I can copy and do my own pages.