Head gasket is a very doable job. You won't need air tools, just a good set of metric sockets, a breaker bar, torque wrench and the standard assortment of other tools. Oh, and the service manual. Definitely gotta have that.

Just stick with an OEM head gasket. An aftermarket gasket won't raise compression enough to make a difference. You'll want to do another coolant flush when it's all done of course. If you've already replaced the thermostat and hoses, you should be pretty much set.

I'd highly recommend taking the cylinder head to a machinist to have the valve seats ground and everything checked out. When my CRX blew its head gasket, I took the head in, and for 200 bucks the machinist did a 3-angle valve job, replaced all 8 exhaust valve guides, checked for cracks and inspected the entire rocker arm train. For another 50 bucks he would have given me a complete gasket set, but it was a generic gasket kit, and I've been bitten in the arse by cheap parts, so I spent the extra dough and bought a Honda head gasket kit.