i've never used 8051 micros before at the moment i'm not capable of writing a functioning program

A micro with no program is useless!
However did you expect to finish this project?
Did you expect that, while you were doing the power part, the micro would just magically program itself and spring to life!? :-0

There are many things which must be considered when choosing a processor for a project, and one of them is, "do I/we have the skills, tools, etc to use it, or do we have the time and/or money to acquire them?" if the answer is "No" (as, apparently, in your case) then you must choose a different processor for which you do have all the necessaries!