Ask Slashdot: Creating a "Personal" Linux Distribution?

Craigthulu asks: "I would like to install Linux from the ground up without using a specific (i.e. someone else's) distribution (except a root/boot combination to get things initially copied). I want to do this so that I become intimately familiar with what exactly is on my computer rather than rely on a bunch of (probably extraneous) software packaged up by someone else. Hopefully, this completely DIY method will force me to learn everything How do I go about finding out what I need as a bare minimum? Is there a distribution that would actually meet these critieria?"