I'm assuming they aren't close enough to just run some cat6 between both houses and have a single instance govern them?
I'll be honest though, although your plan sounds cool as fuck, it also sounds like a really terrifying project from a security perspective.
For my money: yes, you should use an IDE or something like one, but not because you're "missing out" - rather, because a plain text editor will limit your progress.
There are (still!) people around who think it's some sort of badge of honour to only use text editors, but in reality, this means they miss the syntax errors and typoes that we all make because we are human, and end up wasting hours looking for them when an IDE would let them see them.
You wouldn't turn up at a cookery school saying "I'm still a beginner, so I'm only going to use this pair of scissors" - specialised knives and utensils are part of the chef's toolkit, and becoming a better chef is just as much about learning to use them effectively as it is about memorising recipes. It's the same with programming.
No.
There's no need for monoculture - especially on a platform that aims to be decentralised.
Look at it this way - if some town has three gay bars, three metal pubs and three old-man real-ale pubs, it's not an issue for the LGBT community, the metal community or the drunk old men; they're just different places to drink. Possibly the drunk gay old metal fans might get confused, but they sound awesome and are likely welcome everywhere.
...actually, thinking about it, I bet the drunk old men probably do have an issue with all eight of the other pubs they don't go to. But that's just them.