Set up a Home Network? How do I do it & should I merge my accounts?

Hi Folks - this is my first post and its quite long, so please bear with me as I give you a bit of history of my problem.
I bought a iMac and hooked it up to a Seagate 500GB hard disk using Time Machine in my study and connect to my ISP via WiFi using a standard router. I then set up two user accounts - one for me & one for my wife and sync'd them both to our MobileMe accounts.
Later I bought a Mac mini to use as a media centre in my lounge. It hooks into my HD TV through the mini-DVI port and I have a Elgato Eye hooked up via a USB port that links up to my Sky HD+ satellite box via a S-Video cable and AV component leads. I'm using a Mighty Mouse and an Apple Bluetooth keyboard via bluetooth. It has no external back-up hard disk and Time Machine is not set-up.
When I set the Mac mini up, I wasn't quite sure what was the best way to set it up, but I used the Apple Set-up function to copy files & settings over WiFi from the iMac to the Mac mini for both user accounts. So I ended up with a compete copy of my iMac desktop/settings/files on my Mac mini with both accounts set-up with access to our MobileMe accounts.
I wanted to change the layout of my dock on the Mac mini to remove some Apps (iWorks & MS Office). When I then subsequently logged into my iMac, the dock there was now different ie. the same as the Mac mini. So in order to keep my iMac dock different from my Mac mini dock, I changed the user account names on the Mac mini to a new naming convention 'Name - Mac mini'.
I only wanted my media files on the Mac mini and all my other docs (spreadsheets, word processing etc) on the iMac, the idea being the iMac becomes a workstation and the Mac mini the media centre.
So I deleted the relevant files off each mac. I then set-up network file sharing on both and can log into either via Finder to be able to get access to retrieve/access any files I need from either Mac - but this only works if both are on. Now I'm not so sure this is the best set-up.
I've now started to fill up my Mac mini hard drive and I thought I would add some more storage and it would be great if I could back up both the iMac and Mac mini via Time Machine to a hard drive. A friend suggested using NAS storage for this as he does that with his iMac & Apple TV.
So here's my two-part dilemma (appreciate your patience so far)....
Dilemma No. 1: - What should I do for my storage solution?
I can see the advantage of moving all my media & documents to the one shared network and being able to access them no matter what Mac I am using without the other having to be turning the other one on.
I'm considering buying something like a Buffalo Linkstation NAS and connecting to the Mac mini via ethernet.
Dilemma No. 2: - What should I do with my multiple accounts? Merge or keep separate?
I get a little fed-up having to go downstairs and switch on the Mac mini to watch a TV show if I am upstairs on the iMac or if we are in the lounge browsing the web and want a file from the desktop iMac I have to run upstairs and switch that on.
I know I could leave them both on sleep mode but I do like to turn them off now and again.
I fI go for a NAS solution, should I keep the accounts separate?
What's the best solution for both my dilemmas and are they interlinked? As an aside, I know very little about home-networking and what equipment I would need and how I would go about setting it up.
Any help you can give [if you're still awake after reading this ] would be most appreciated.
Cheers.

I personally suggest the new Drobo FS. Since it has an iTunes server built in and you can use any size sata hard drive in it it is better and a NAS that has to use the same size drives.

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