Technical Advice Plea

Hey guys, I'm fairly sure I've seen posts on my flist, some of you have done your own layouts. Is there anyone who can give me some seriously 'for dummies' help with making my own layout? I've found a couple of comms and sites, but all the coding makes me gibber and makes NO sense what so ever. I can handle most things if they're explained to me step by step, but everything I've found assumes that you have a clue to start with.