As far as copying a site goes, unless you copy it line by line (of code) then most people don't have too much problem with you using a similar layout (as long as you don't use thier images, or images like them).

Back to the webdesign portion. I would suggest learning HTML. Yeah, you CAN go buy Frontpage and use it to put together a website that will show up 90% of the time without errors in 75% of the viewers browsers, but why do that when you can just start by learning HTML? HTML is not hard to learn and while you can't do a whole lot with it, you will be able to make a nice site with it.

Of course you COULD hire a designer, but that depends on how much of a website you are wanting. Special Effects or server side scripting is something you might want to hire someone for, but just the standard site I'd say take about 1-2 days and learn HTML. Good luck and post back if you have any questions at all. We will be here to help you at.

PS- Glad to have you as a member!