Sounds more like you needed to read a book about mysql + database design. Its good to come up with workable solutions using what you know. Its better to figure

Sounds more like you needed to read a book about mysql + database design. Its good to come up with workable solutions using what you know. Its better to figure out what you need to know for a great solution and go learn that. That's my philosophy anyway. And I would imagine reading just enough to know whether you really should start from scratch again, or read much more to grok the required intricacies, would be worth it.