I am a coder and not a designer ...

If I knew how to design, I would not have to touch the code to change the design as that is how Zen Cart is setup ...

As a code, I am like you, and I just "think" I have to touch the code to change the design when most of the time it is all done in the stylesheet ...

If you could take the time to state "what" you think you are trying to do, I bet some designer types could just tell you change the class in your stylesheet to blah blah blah and bing bang boom ... it is all changed without touching the code ...