I was hoping that I might be able to get some help from the community by asking for it here. I am looking to get an eg or an ek hatch this spring and start wrenching on my first project car! Fortunately my father-in-law used to be a mechanic for many years said he wouldn't mind working on one with me to show me the ropes. The car I am looking for ideally would be a fun weekend car but nothing too crazy as far as trying to track it. My budget would be a firm $2500 for the initial purchase but as year goes on I would like to make some modifications to my taste as needed. In the past I had a 2000 Prelude Type SH and loved the vtec on it. Even tho it wasn't a lightweight car, it still felt so fun to drive. Right now I own a GTI so I know the refined feeling of a DSG turbo but I just want to get back to the feeling of controlling a manual. I was hoping to get some opinions on what I should look for to start this adventure. I feel like I may have just been sporadically researching in every which direction and need some guidance.

I live in southern Wisconsin(53545) and we have rust issues here of which I'm hoping to avoid. I only want a ek hatch or eg hatch but maybe open to an em1. I would prefer something that has a vtec. However, I would definitely be open to adding a turbo to a non-vtec motor. My father-in-law also said that doing an engine swap would be no problem or even a frankenstein engine. I have been looking online (facebook marketplace and craigslist) around the area and found many options over the past few months, but at times it seems overwhelming because of the vast amount of engine swaps previous owners have done. Would should be my plan of attack for this budget as well as type of driving? Thank you in advance to all that reply!