My skills are pretty limited, but I managed to teach myself some basic html and css, and that's what I used to build my website (address at bottom of page) - it's basic and functional.
I really like the information available at
www.htmldog.com - it was easy enough for me to understand
I've struggled with Nvu, and I use a basic html editor (Alleycode - you can download it free from
www.alleycode.com), but you do need to understand html and css to make the best use of it.
Good luck, and let us know what you go with!
D