These are great cars, unles you really want a full-dress Civic.
You won't find much good help locally, but this brickboard group can really give you good answers. You'll have some decent hand tools, things like a compression gauge, and be willing to get your hands dirty. The design is strong, reliable, and has no real weak points. Once running, they are very cheap to maintain and improve.
Don't spend a lot of money all at once. Cheap compression tester $10.

First things first.
You need to be able to try to start it. Without a key you'll have to remove the ignition lock by George's method, or get a key made.

You can at least jump it at the starter to test compression, which is the basic test of the condition of an engine. If that shows promise, maybe get the ign lock fixed.