Solution Found: home page route needed to be changed to:

res.sendFile('splitHomepage.html', {'root': './splitSiteFiles'});

start at the root 'folder the server file is located', which is represented as the '.' in the next parameter block. from there, specify the paths in form: /innerfoldername/innerfolder name, and etcetera as required.

Seems simple but still want to keep this up for students and people new to nodeJS like I am.