It was sort of unexpected, but here's how it all panned out.
I got my mom to help me empty the water out of the 10 gallon fish tank I was going to use, and we started cleaning it, and she decided it would be a good idea to go look at the local petshop and see what supplies we can find. This local petshop is very nice. They have a knowledgable staff caring for the reptiles, and every animal is always extremely healthy there. So I started looking for the supplies seperately, and my mom pointed out their "leopard gecko kit". This was around $70 I think, and it came with a 10 gallon tank, a screen lid, screen lid clips, heating pad (zoomed...I currently have it on a dimmer until i can order a thermostat), an incandescent strip light to go on top that holds two of those thin 15 watt red bulbs (also included)...I actually like that a lot for this particular setup, because it brings the temps in most of the cage up only a couple of degrees (which is good for when the house gets a little chilly), and allows for good night viewing. The heat pad makes the hot spot. Anyways, besides that it came with a good size grapevine log (which I'll probably give to my beardie or uro, because it doesn't make sense taking up so much floor space of a terrestrial gecko's tank), a water dish, repcal calcium w/ d3, which is good because I was almost out, and something I am only currently using in the humid hide, because I find it to be very inadequate substrate for a gecko...red cypress...basically shredded wood. It works well for the humid hide, but I don't think I would let the little guy hunt on that stuff!
Anyways, we got that together, plus a couple of hides, and we were about to go, but I decided to have one of the employees take a gecko out for me. They picked out a great looking leo, one that was much more tame than the others (though still quite fast, lol), and when I got to hold it in the palm of my hand I was sold. He's presumably a male, about 6 monthes old, and about 6" long. He's such a little cutie too. Yesterday when we put him in he just walked around his cage inspecting everything and then settled into the warm hide. Later he moved over to the cool hide for night, and when my mom woke up early this morning she caught him out exploring again. I think he's settling in pretty well. I'll probably try putting a few crickets in on monday, and maybe try interacting with him in a week or two. I don't plan on handling him much, but I want him to be tame enough by the time he gets bigger that I won't have to try to restrain him when I do take him out.
Right now the cage is very bland. It's just papertowels on the ground, a warm hide, a cool hide, a humid hide (on the warm side), and a dish of water, all under a red glow. I think I might put some fake plant life in the spruce it up a little. Maybe one of those vine-like thingies with the fake leaves all over it. I'm also thinking of trying something different for substrate once he's an adult. I'm thinking about doing a combination of slate pieces in a thin layer of dirt, so he will get the luxury of a fairly natural setup, without having a substrate that's easily ingested (I use dirt with my mali uromastyx and as long as you don't let it dry off too much it's packed down good...there wouldn't be much of it visible anyways, it would just fill in the cracks in between the broken up slate...I'll see what happens, I might end up just continuing to use paper products and shelf liner...tried and true).
Thanks for all of the help. I've been monitoring the tank temps, and it seems to be pretty good right now. When I get a thermostat it will be even easier.
