Check out this guy's articles - Bob Formisano - you'll want to mark this a favorite.  He bloggs about home repair in plain English - for nonmechanical type people like me.  I have printed a number of these articles and emailed some too to clients who called for help.  He's on About.com in the home repair section.  He has a set of guides to the right of his column, they are on my favorite list.  Home repair is not easy or for the faint of heart (in my opinion :>) but Bob makes it a lot easier and even I have completed a number of things that I would have usually called a tradesman for.  While you're there sign up for his newsletter, it is invaluable to a home owner or a Realtor.

 Thanks Bob for all your great info and how to