None of that sounds very serious, maybe two weekends worth of work (cruising). Don't get discouraged!
There are spark plug thread repair kits that you can use with the heads still installed. Put some grease on the tap to retain the metal chips so they don't fall down inside the engine.
Even if you have to pull the heads, assuming you don't have problems with the valves, you would only be into it for a set of gaskets.
Could you pull a valve cover and post up the casting numbers? If they are nothing special, even worse case scenario, shouldn't be expensive to fix.
I am assuming you have a Holley carb from your description. They are easy enough to rebuild (if necessary). Pick up the appropriate Holley Trick Kit and with just some basic hand tools, I am sure you can get it dialed.
I would say bring it by my shop and I would help you wrench on it, but I am about 200 miles south of you.
Time to man up and earn your namesake. Keep us in the loop and rough times will quickly be a thing of the past.
Cheers,
Joe