We just started using hostgator for our clients and they seem to be a pretty good company for hosting. Any reliable hosting company will allow you to be able to create your own code and then upload it to their site. You said you don't know any code yet, though, correct? Most of them also provide software for do-it-yourself-ers.

Site designers can sometimes be costly, depending on your needs and their professionalism/experience. You could also have the web designer/developer add what's called a content management system. This allows you certain control over editing your website. We offer this on our Salted Websites (ready-made sites). However, if you are trying to put the site together yourself using web design software such as dreamweaver (cost is $399) and adding up all the time it takes to learn it, you could almost end up at the same cost. If you really want to learn this yourself by learning code and such, just be prepared to be really dedicated to learning it :) It took me 1-2 years to learn php, a certain website code, and I still feel like a beginner!

As far as ecommerce, there are some shopping cart software companies that allow you some flexibility in designing it. I use Avactis and have been really happy with them so far.

If you have any other website questions, feel free to ask!