I like to use foundations that are open source and written in PHP. It has some more programming features as HTML. By using open source you get a working base. If you want to make this your job then get something that is worling and disect it. Learn to read the code, understand what it is doing. Then you can create some additions.
But never try to invent the wheel. Just make it roll better.

I do not like dreamweaver, as is needs flash plugins to run. This can kill your site for search engines if you want to develop something that can attract a lot of visitors.
When you make a site do not only look for the coolest gadgets and graphics. Also check how big the load time will be.
Look at a lot of sites and think of why you stay or leave. Use this to create your own.