Access Points and Antennas???

Just bought a new old house and am gearing up to wire it before we
move in. It was built in the late 30s and the walls are dense...to
put it lightly. My expereince is that if I need to use a cell phone,
I have to go outside...so I doubt one access point in the basement is
going to cut it.

1) I have read here that one can use multiple access points but the
adapter card will try to hang on as long as it can until the signal
completely drops from the point it originally met. Would just killing
the wireless connection and then re-initializing it help? Would
rebooting the laptop help?

2) I am probably going with Netgear exclusively...except for the
built in wireless in the laptop. Is D-Link, Linksys..etc. any better?

3) There are 5db and 18 antennas made by Netgear available for
certain pieces. They say that these are only to be used for certain
units...none of which are the ones I have chosen. Does anyone have
any real world experience using external or aftermarket antennas with
access points? My choices are to either put two access points in and
possibly use the stock antennas or to put one centrally located unit
in and use an antenna.

Also, any other antennas other than the name brand units that are
tried and tested? Most that I see are made for Linksys...

Thoughts?

Thanks