Haha, yes I have done it.

False economy imo. The time spent washing bottles alone was enough to put me off, nevermind the rest of the bs. And for all that, the beer was awful. Much easier to just go to the store and buy good beer.
Imo, if you want a good brew you're going to have to do it more or less from scratch. Maybe not going so far as to roast your own hops, but buying the appropriate roast and proceeding from there. For a garage setup, it's just way too much fucking around unless you really love doing it for some reason. I only ever brewed from a syrup and it was an exercise in pointlessness.