Hi Tim,
We made our own webpage from scratch (see link below) without any previous experience, and it's really quite simple. It's fairly basic in that it's a single webpage, but it does the job.
Firstly we drafted up the website through a Google blog account. It was simple, just select the desired header, layout and font, type out your text as normal and add photos etc. We then transferred it in html format to our own domain and address which we got free from our internet provider.
With a bit of trial and error and consulting the Net for advice and tips we've built it up from there. The only thing we've paid for was the software to transfer the files and pictures to the server (we use Ipswitch), which cost about $30. This allows us to continually update and improve the webpage.
Hope this helps.
George.