Customizing the look

My suggestion is to look at some of the templates that kind (and creative to boot!) souls have provided. Download them, unzip them and study them. I recommend TopStyle or TopStyle Pro 3.0 to learn to create validating stylesheets.
Here are some links to help you with CSS:
CSS Tutorials from W3 Schools: http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp
CSS Edge: http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/
RuthsarianLayouts (the author encourages you to grab the stylesheets, study them, and rip them to make them your own): http://webhost.bridgew.edu/etribou/layouts/
House of Style CSS Tutorials: http://www.westciv.com/style_master/house/index.html
And Listamatic is a greate site to tweak your links. As you know, WordPress uses the Unordered List and List Item structure for links. I fought this tooth and nail, and in fact, don’t have that structure implemented on my current WordPress design. But after reading this web site and seeing all that can be accomplished with a little CSS, I’m sold!
http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/index.htm
Hope the links help!