1. In NC you will not need to worry about heating the coop in the winter. We are in north central indiana and we do not heat ours. We gather eggs more often during the winter, so they don't freeze, but the chickens need to acclimate to the cold naturally. If you put heat in a coop, and the power goes out on a cold night, the chickens are at risk because they haven't developed the fat/down layers necessary to withstand the cold. I know of people in Alaska that do not heat their coops. You do, however, need to have a way to keep water from freezing in the winter. We use a plug-in dog bowl from Walmart that cost us about $15.
2. If you cannot free range, you should give them a good variety including grass, weeds, leafy veggies, etc. We can't free range since we have too many predators even during the day (stray dogs, coyotes, raccoons, etc). So I pick grass and weeds and we buy the marked down produce at the grocery store.
3. All roosters are not mean. Some are and you never know if they will be or not but our roo is not mean at all. However, they are loud. All day-not just in the morning. In fact, our Cosmo crows all during the night as well. Some townships don't allow roosters. If you free range, a rooster is a nice thing to have as they will warn the hens of impending danger and some will even protect them physically. If you don't free range you don't really need a rooster.
4. Wash your hands after handling chickens or any of their stuff (feeders, waterers, eggs, etc) and you should be fine with the diseases. I'm a full blown germophobe and I only get a little anxious about that (I do use plastic gloves a lot and keep some hand sanitizer at the coop). We have cattle (one that is a pet) and hogs as well and they also carry diseases. We wash our hands after petting them too.
5. We use the deep litter method where you just add litter periodically along with some kind of powder (ours is called Sweet PDZ and some use Diatomaceous Earth). We clean out the coop once or twice a year and it doesn't stink other than on rainy days when everything around here stinks. I use nest pads in the nest boxes and we change those out as needed. Our coop is situated so that I can gather eggs and open/close the sliding chicken door without going into the coop. We keep the feed and water just inside the walk door so we can feed and water without going in.
6. I do not wash eggs unless they are visibly dirty. I do make sure I wash my hands after handling eggs (outside and in the kitchen) and cook them thoroughly. I keep our eggs on the counter. When we get enough for a dozen, I will put them in a carton and in the fridge and they are given away. Everyone we give eggs to knows that I don't wash them. I use the eggs off the counter since they're better used at room temperature. If I wash eggs, they go directly into the fridge since washing it removes the protective bloom. I use paper towels and hot water to wash any dirty spots off of them.
7. It is possible to hard boil fresh eggs. I steam them for about 15 minutes (depends on the size-I weigh mine and use all the same-size eggs for hard cooking) and then immediately plunge them into ice water (with actual ice in it) for 5 minutes. They peel as easily as aged store bought eggs about 99% of the time. Once in a while we get a stubborn one.
8. If you buy chicks from a hatchery, they are not Ameraucaunas OR Auraucanas. They are a mixed breed called Easter Eggers and still excellent chickens and layers. True Ameraucanas and Auraucanas are only sold by breeders. We have two Easter Eggers and they were great layers the first year (better than our heavy layers) but have slowed way down this year (2nd summer). I would get them again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Egger