So my question are:

What are the bare necessity tools that I need to buy to make life a little easier with projects and what brand is ideal for budding home owner?

If you are seriously looking for answers to this sort of question you might post it over at rec.woodworking. The people there get it all the time and by now a simple search of the archives will give you all the answers you might want. As a summary: it all depends on what you intend to do in the hobby, how serious you are about it, and how much money you have to spend.