Be careful; one project turns into two, which turns into 3, which turns into a lifestyle! I use searXNG and have a wireguard instance into my LAN so that I can access the nth service I just set up that I cannot believe I have been living without when I am away from the LAN!
May I also suggest pihole be in your list of things to try out, or adguard home if that is they way you swing I will not judge. Once you get your ad blocking setup you will really start noticing the ads in other places and you will then need to go further into ad blocking, when you decide to get your own domain name may I suggest you find a provider that offers a wildcard email option, if you need a free trial service just a little longer create a new account with a new email address or if something gets spammy just have things sent to that address either bounced and deleted or just deleted before it gets to your inbox.