Thanks again, Cave. I feel so dumb! I keep missing the little things! Totally missed this line...
"To backup your save game, ensure that Steam isn't running and copy the entire \Steam\SteamApps\userdata\<YourSteamUserId>\<SteamGameId>"
I'll try restoring after exiting out of Steam, and if that doesn't work, I guess I go back to rebuilding everything. But hey, that's how we learn, right? Hopefully this thread will help someone else as absent minded as I am in the future.