For the design part, use more tables to keep stuff organized to start with. If you want three columns for the site, add a table with three columns and cram everything into its right place. Then work on a header and footer, for instance.

Feel free to check some (simple) sites out that I've made:
http://www.zelaron.com/template
http://www.zelaron.com/bluetempest
http://hem.passagen.se/chruser99/Result/index10.htm
http://www.mmofps.com

"Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica and is widely regarded as the most important innovator in scientific and technical computing today." - Stephen Wolfram