Hi and welcome to SRP

The first question we always ask is: "was your razor shave ready, or did you have someone (Pro) hone it to shave ready"

Shaving with a Straight is a fine motor skill like many others, just takes some practice and patience to master.
You are going at it the right way, working in stages.
It is much easier to learn with a great edge, and I suggest you look for someone in the classifieds - and someone in the area may reach out to you and offer to help.

It is a lot to learn, and you might be better off delaying the honing thing until you get past the magic 100 shaves (unless a mentor pops up at your door)

On the blade maintenance side if you master stropping the edge will stay true for some time...the problem is that "mastering stropping" thing takes some practice. (go slow)

Read read read the forum and wiki and you can learn about maintaining an edge with pasted strops, Crox or Balsa etc.

Next thing you know you have a drawer full of razors, another with Soaps and Creams, still another with stones and then there is the brushes etc. But you know some of this already...eh?

Good luck and Smooth Shaving, you are amongst friends..