There is always a balance between getting some extra productivity by using somebody else's code, or getting the knowledge, expertise and control of writing it yourself. Far too often I see young programmer's choose something off the shelf so that they don't have to understand it. This is a recipe for disaster -- for your project, for your team and for yourself.
IMHO, as programmers, we should err on the side of writing code. Often it is obvious that you should use standard libraries, or a particular framework or or another reuse library. But where it is not really obvious, I would start with writing your own code and see where it gets you. You can always replace it later if it doesn't work out. I think you will find that you and your team will be miles ahead if you take this approach.