SethAZ 

Awesome news! Congrats on learning and doing this stuff. It's funny how this stuff can seem so mysterious to some folks, but if you dig in and learn it things like swapping cassettes, cutting down chains and using master links, etc. isn't that complex nor difficult. A couple special tools like a chain whip and that special splined driver (whatever it's called for loosening/tightening the cassette lock ring) and you're all set. It's liberating not to be bound to paying the LBS to do simple stuff you can easily do yourself.

As an aside, in some of my rides recently I've ridden over to this one route that takes me through some low hills maybe 7 or 8 miles from my house specifically because I like having these short climbs included in my longer rides. The descents down these fairly shallow climbs have given me a good opportunity to examine the tradeoffs I made when I chose to "downgrade" my 50t large chainring in front to a 46t gravel bike chainring. Combined with my 12t highest cog in the rear by the time I hit the upper 20s I'm already in my highest gear on these descents, and how fast I can actually get is limited then to my spin-out cadence. I wouldn't necessarily always want to have to be spinning 100+ rpm just to be able to contribute a little power to the effects of gravity on my descents, so this is unfortunate. Viewed in context, however, where 99% of my riding is in flat territories where I'm usually limited to below 20mph on a cruise or maybe into the mid-20s on a short and above-threshold effort or even a sprint, the benefits of this tradeoff are totally worth it. But yeah, when I'm in hill country there are certainly consequences to my gearing, and not everyone would agree with that tradeoff.