I know how many of you feel about BD but here are a couple worth looking at:

Ultegra for ~$1600. A little over budget but a good starting place.
Kestrel 105 for ~1500

You have to do the final assembly yourself, but that will help you understand how it all goes together.

I'm not sure if you've missed most of the end-of-year sales but there may still be closeouts available.