laravel/bootstrap project! -- new experience

Hi. Doing research/learning/getting an understand of laravel/php, how it kind of flows. It appears that building something like an "invoiceninja" webApp is sort of like putting together the building blocks for a site, based on the look/feel, and the functions/features. I'm using invoiceninja as an example, as I'm looking to build a site, and a number of the "components" are similar to some in "invoiceninja". Am I right in thinking that one can use existing sites as "guides" with regards to getting a feel for laravel? My basic process for now: check out diff sites, get a top level feel for the ui/logic/tbls -check out the "code" -- html/views/routes/controllers/etc.. -build the rough structure/layout of the new site.. -based on the initial sites/code.. create the rough new laravel structure/frame get the basic "new" up/crawling.. -start to add the additional pages/funcs/ui route/tbl/model/controllers/view.. blade files.. yield/content sections/html get the logic down.. for those familiar with laravel, am i missing something??? thanks