personally, as a fellow cheap ass, you should goto trak auto...
lifetime warantee on pads... if they wear out you get another free pair. i just replaced my rear ones for free bendix is good if you goto a local auto store.

checking the pads: take your wheel off and stick your head into the wheel well with a light. and check the thickness of them. (or you can look through that little window on the side of the caliper) if they look they have about 1 mm of pad left might as well change'em if they are like 2+ mm they are still good and your brakes might just be squeelin. if they are just squeelin and they ahve lotsa pad left go buy some of that orange anti squeelin stuff you past between the pad and the caliper

replacement: they are easy as hell. 10mm socket and rachet... and loosen. if you have trouble, find a pipe to stick on the end to get more leverage. once you loosen them, they can pretty much be taken off by hand. wiggle the caliper off, and rest it somewhere so it doesn't hang on the brake line. Take a C-clamp and push the caliper back in with one of the old pads as a surface on the piston. voila, its back in. put new pads on, swap over the anti noise shim, and apply that paste that prevents squeelin.
i am pretty sure all civics are the same brake design wise from my gen on, so the back you cant' just push the pison back in. you have to twist it back in. while you are in the process of pusing the pistons back in, you can bleed the brake fluid too if you want. not always necessary.

rotors, take those two philips head screws off and it should pretty much come off. BUT the philips screws are a ***** to get off, don'dt strip them.

cross drilled/slotted: brembo is good. some brands that drilled warped easliy.. but brembo should be okay. both designs keeps break dust low and prevents fade by keeping cool.