I'm in the same boat, man. Been in my house about a year and a half, and am overwhelmed with how little I know about doing renovations. I go to friends houses and they've completely gutted and replaced bathrooms, installed new floors, etc. I need some kind of Master/Apprentice relationship with someone to help train me or something. I'm pretty handy with little things, but drywall? Tiling? Any project involving wood I have to cut myself? Simply don't have the tools or know how, and finding this information on the internet is time consuming in extremely lacking in content. Seems most of the handy people are too busy doing things in the real world.
It's good to know that I'm not alone, thanks. Question: I have a couple of decks/porches off of the back of my house. The wood is just raw, it's never been stained or treated. I'm afraid it's going to rot and that I need to stain it to protect it. Can I do this while the boards are all in place or do I need to take the thing apart? If the answer is I don't need to remove the boards, then I'll do it myself. Otherwise, it's beyond my skill level.
They probably used some kind of pressure treated wood to begin with, perhaps not for the planks (it doesn't look as good as other options, cedar for example), but definitely for the structural wood. You can just stain the deck surface. That's what's exposed to the elements most. Every other year, power washing and staining is probably a good idea to extend the life as much as possible (although people who are very particular do it every year up here where the winters can suck balls). Staining a deck is just like painting, which anyone who has the slightest amount of patience should be able to do.