The number one reason to use SQL is not a reason not to use an ORM. SQL is extremely powerful - it can make your data sit up, roll over, play dead and even speak. Learning how to harness that power is worth while. So maybe use an ORM now, while you are learning SQL.
Or use a "pure orm" (mapping to plain business objects) without a query builder - thus writing native sql and receiving nicely structured objects from the results (eg https://github.com/craigmichaelmartin/pure-orm)