Hi Sause, If you're just starting out skipping the secondary is usually not a problem depending on what you're brewing, i.e a basic pale ale. Are you looking at kits on the web or at a homebrew shop? It's been my experience that most kits come with a single stage fermentor and a bottling...
A friend of mine told me that he once brewed in his driveway...some people in his neighborhood called the police saying he was brewing up meth. Too much of "60 Minutes" can be a bad thing!
This would be a great time to do it. November the 6th is "Teach a friend to Homebrew" day. Check out this site http://www.beertown.org/events/teach/ for info.
Hi also first time posting. I feel that if your just starting out house hold bleach is the way to go due to the fact that it's cheap and effective (just don't use it on/in stainless steel). Once you start getting into kegging etc I would then look into using the off the shelf sanitizers. DT