Parkland, you've basically decided on a steel hull which is fine as no one was really trying to talk you out of it, other than offering other options for consideration. Essentially, any shipyard on the planet will posses the means to repair your boat if needed, so you can't really go wrong with this choice.
I'm not very nautical savvy and have never constructed a boat so in your shoes I would pay for someone the design the hull for you, once you've established the general requirements such as your intended usage, statement of requirements, general arrangement, etc.
Once you've established that, there are several members here that can help you with the design, for a fee of course, to produce plans for fabrication, or refer you to someone that can. As someone already suggested, since your boat can be put on a trailer, you have the option of having a hull built anywhere you care to drive to, pick it up, and finish the build-out on your time scale and budget in your backyard, garage or nearby location that you've rented for this purpose.
BTW, once you have your boat, where will you be using it, once you've transported it on your trailer?
I know there are lots of experts here, my experience here has been interesting, and I have learned a lot.
Unfortunately, I don't want to spend a mint of making a boat, so I doubt I'll be hiring designers or architects, or having the boat built at a boat building outfit.
The time I've spent on here has been really useful... we've chatted about lots of things, some pertinent, some not so much, but it has all been interesting to say the least.
One thing that I've learned, is that just deciding on a design, or boat size, is a huge task, even though I thought it was simple. I thought I had it figured out the day I signed up, and I still don't have it all figured out, haha.
Basically, this boat would be for use on lakes, and semi protected bodies of water, where the waves are usually small, and 3 ft tall in most worst case scenarios.
So I don't need an ocean trawler, but a pontoon boat is not quite up to the task of any rough weather, IMHO. A pontoon houseboat would probably work for 95% of what I intend on doing, but my opinion is that a boat should be capable for most weather conditions on the water you plan to use it.
A large cabin cruiser would almost fit the bill, but they all have planing hulls, and also very wide, untrailerable.
This is pretty close to what I would want :
