Covert website to MODX

I am after updating my website, so while doing the update i thought i would update to MODx as its such a good cms.

Currrent Site is: www.thegasinstallers.com

I am re-desiging with the following design - http://www.thegasinstallers.com/gas-installers-web1.jpg

This will be coded soon, but what i need is some advice on how to code the finished Xhtml/css, so the left coloum is there the left hand menu auto updates Navigation

I would also like to add an article section for the site away from the main section except maybe by a single link, to increase SEO etc, i am not sure how to do this either.

I also need to migrate the contact form as is to MODx and am not sure how to do this either.

All help is appricated

Regards

See if this helps:

http://bobsguides.com/porting-your-site-to-modx.html

Thanks i am collecting info like this to do that, how about the article part this is the bit that confuses me, i.e to have it within the same site, but not be part of the main site only one link to it.

Regards