If you really want to learn, I'd like to suggest a book that I found to be extremely informative. It's called "House Wireint with the National Electric Code: by Ray C. Mullin, Delmar Publishers. It will really help you understand a not only the right ways to do things, but also the reasoning behind the NEC.
At ther very least, it will help you make better decisions and also to make sure that you can keep the electrician(s) you work with in check. It may also be helpful for any small projects that you may someday decide to tackle. Given your situation, I think it will certainly pay for itself in both the cost of the book, and also the time spent reading it.
There were two versions last time I looked, one bigger than the other and about twice the cost. I got the smaller ($25) version and refer to it any time I need a reference. The larger one looked to me to be a more thorough version of the smaller, but didn't cover many more topics.
This book is far better, IMHO, than the Black & Decker, Time Life, etc. books that you're likely to see at your local home improvement store. But unlike those books, it doesn't have all the photos of how to do smaller tasks like changing light fixtures.
