Indie-Resource.com

this sounds VERY interesting.

I generally edit, but I think we're allowed to yes.

And this seems like an awful lot of work. You might want to check out codeigniter:
http://codeigniter.com/

template parser:
http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/parser.html

It's an MVC framework for PHP, you don't "have" to use it, I'd just advise you do as it's quite user friendly, easy to learn and you could put it on you CV once you know how.