I did mine. I used WordPress and Firefox´s firebug to see what the code was doing. The first iteration was done with a static word page (honestly!) and then I got WordPress and a generic theme at the end of my first year. That winter I rewrote it all to be like I wanted and each winter since then I´ve tweaked it to be more like I want.
I´ve done it all myself, with help from Google. That was from necessity though, I literally didn´t have any money. I haven´t spent anything but have invested a lot of my time. The advantage is that I now understand it all and can make tweaks as I want. Disadvantages are that it´s not perfect and that I used a lot of my time. Of course it depends on what your business needs are.
Tips? I thought it worked well with WordPress and using Firebug so that I can see the css and html and see what it all does in real time. Also getting a locally hosted website makes a massive difference so that can play away with it.
There are so many resources on the web that you can ask google for as much help as you need.