I thank you both for your replies, and hope to get more in the next week. (My ordering/decision deadline is Oct. 1st)
Jingles, as much as I would LOVE to go with your hardware suggestions, they are simply out of my budget. Looking around the internet at pricing on those products, they put me closer to $1000 when I add a good fog machine instead of the target of $500. Thank you for the input, it is always nice to hear directly from the manufacturers official representative!
Chris, I think you are hitting closer to my reality. "Biggest bang for the buck" is right on the nose. I really only need something of a semi-professional quality, but the goal is to nicely light & fog up my driveway for a couple of nights a year maximum. Perhaps as the years roll on, I might add another light (movement/spot) or two to the show, but I can't ever see needing much more. And I presumed the DMX devices were daisy chained, thank you for confirming that.
Thank you both for the Guitar Center suggestion. I will do that for sure and hope to find someone that I can tap for info, and possibly good deals at least on the DMX controller hardware.
Please keep the suggestions coming, I'm soaking this in like a sponge! (I am a tech-geek, just don't know anything about this stuff...yet!)