I've been using the Bitcoin GUI for a little while and am feeling a bit like it is "trying to make things easy for me" a bit more than I would like.  One example is that I would like to consolidate the coins I have been mining over time.  I have already done a "payment to myself" using the client (unfortunately I have to go to blockexplorer to get any details about it other than the base value).  I'm just wondering how difficult it would be to do the following:

• Specify the coins (or at least the addresses) in the "in" side.  I have multiple addresses in my wallet with different histories and would like to avoid linking them in the same transaction if possible.
• A better description or control over transaction fees.  I've paid transaction fees before for a reason I didn't fully understand, best guess is that the client was prioritizing new coins over older ones for some reason (I've heard mention of smaller coins being used first, no matter their age).  This may be an extension of the first item, in the event that no aged coins are available (or transaction fees are suggested for other reasons) I'd like to declare a low-priority transaction that I don't really care whether it takes a few weeks to complete.
• Option to avoid "change".  This also extends from the first item (i.e. if you know/choose your coins you can just total them up), especially when consolidating I'm not really in the mood for creating a low-value coin whose only purpose is to be swept into the next consolidate action (where it likely is so small and fresh that it will force a transaction fee)

I think in the end this question is along the lines of "how can I use the tools out there to explicitly build a transaction, using my current wallet file and without the requirement that I have to manually calculate private key hashes?"

I have expect this to end up being a "RTFM".  I am seeing the CLI for the bitcoin client, which does move forward a little bit, the isn't available in the GUI for instance.