Here's a few things off the top of my head, I'm sure others will contribute more.

As for the wind/water/solar sites being far from the house, you could put the batteries and inverter out there in a shed and run 120VAC into the house. Unfortunately, this scheme requires that you spend some money on a good inverter, more/better batteries, and leaves you rather vulnerable to inverter failure. I actually am running my off-grid place that way, no DC in the house, but I had money to spend on a state of the art system at the time. Your only other solution would be to run relatively large wires from the site to your home, or make liberal use of the chainsaw.

You might spend some time reading the Otherpower site pages. Since you want to DIY, and you seem to be financially challenged, I think you would do quite well to study this axial flux alternator design used on the wind turbines around here. The design is flexible and scalable. It has been used successfully in wind turbines, Microhydro setups, and on diesel engines to make electricity for off grid homes. You say you don't want to make an alternator but there are easy to follow plans here on how to build one, especially for wind turbines.

Lastly, it is generally accepted around here that if you need to make power for your daily needs, a horizontal axis wind turbines will out-perform a Savonius type every time. I posted a challenge about six months back in here for anyone that could show me 100W out of a vertical type machine and have it last three months would get $100. Nobody has stepped up to claim the prize. However, there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of the axial flux horizontal machines, producing 500-1000 watts on a daily basis flying all over the world in service today.

So I would recommend that you step in the footprints of those who have gone before you. You might make headway playing around with car alternators and tractor generators, but the guys who have perfected this axial flux machine were doing that years ago and wound up where they are today after years of experimentation and improvement. This place, if utilized, could allow you to sit on their shoulders.

Volvo Farmer