Installation when domain (shop) in use with another cart.....

Hi,

This is probably not an intelligent question, but I need to ask, because I really do not understand how to go about this.

I have an existing webshop with a custom made cart. I now want to set up the shop again with zen cart, but of course I want my domain to be the same. However, I would perfer to let my current shop run while I install zen cart on the server and start to set up the shop, test etc... which I expect can take three months.....

My current site is hosted on a vps server with company x, but I want the "new" shop built on zen cart to be hosted with another company where I have just opened a vps account.

Can I start to set up the site on a completely different domain, and then "switch" to the real domain when everything is running? Is this really complicated? :dontgetit

Thank you for anyone who can bear with me on these basics.

Set your Zen Cart up on the new host and just use the IP address for set up - when you are complete - transfer the DNS to the new server, change your configure files and you should be off and running.