I'd probaly more interested if your own coding standards were up to date. html 4.0/4.01 transitional is so out dated. Sooner they depreceate it the better IMHO.
It's ok to review sites if your keeping your self upto date in coding standards and xhtml is the latest standard as set out by W3C. Your page/s are simple enough to render in xhtml along with css, especially your review page of casual cottage. All your using realy is two block level div's, a header div and a footer div.
So for your body,
<body>
<div id="header">
content of header
</div>
<div id="left-block">
content of block
</div>
<div id="right-block">
content of block
</div>
<div id="footer">
content of footer
</div>
</body>
</html>
All the atributes/position/font type, color etc can then be put together in your .css which can be either inline or not. I prefer not to use inline as that was the main reasoning behind css. To take all the un-neccessary code out of the page. It means faster load times for one and also that your page is virtually guaranteed to be readily available across all browsers.
It also means that your site will maintain high standards, be more easily accessible by search engines and I can guarantee that a site written in xhtml will be positioned and found first by engines above html sites. That will save a lot of time and money in search engine optimization.
It is the future of the web. I have noticed myself that in the last 6 mnths a lot of changes have been taking place with an active movement against thrown together commercial sites - that IMHO is what is happening and will continue to happen. It was and is the main reason behind my change from html 4.0/4.01 to xhtml. (I also got a nod & a wink from - well let's just say a very reliable source ;) )
Good idea though all the same
Nomad