ive never seen a case where worn/bad valve seals caused a rough start like that...it would literally take a vwery large amount of oil to make that happen, like more than could ever leak past the seal- deff look into PCV system, also does it rattle at all on cold starts? any CEL's?
and as far as valve job, they are pretty expensive since its a 5 valve per cyl setup- the valves are so small that they are usually unable to be "correctly" redone, so replacement is required, though the hillbilly way of lapping may get you by for a while, i would do a compression/leakdown on the motor before you tear it apart..good luck!!