Carving is a "no-no" if you're on Day 2... even Day 6 or 7. Day 400, maybe, but hopefully, by then, you'll have enough skills to not need it. If you're familiar with art programs, like Illustrator or CorelDraw, then Hammer will seem backwater to you. You can't "knock-out" a shape from another in Hammer, which is what carving is. You can't "unite", "subtract", "exclude", and all those other great functions that make those programs easy.
Here's the tutorials you need
Clipping tool instructionVertex ManipulationVertex Manipulation2Read all three tutorials before you start, but practice with the clipping tool before you get to the Vertex stuff.