I hear ya! I started out replacing my rear pads and rotors because they appeared warped/pads gone. Then couldn't get rear pass caliper pistion to fully compress, but enough to get it back on. 1 mile down the road I smelt burning/had smoke coming from that corner. Turned around, bought new caliper for that side, went home, replaced it. Then couldn't get it to bleed or anything, check the otherside rear and same thing on the original caliper. Found out the rear flex lines on both sides were collapsed...went to store, replaced those, and finally its all good. A 30 minute job turned into a few hour job easy.
Fixing your own shit sucks sometimes...Glad yours was an easy and cheap fix!