Homebrew PCBs

Great responses. Thanks to all.

As I said, I will order greater quantities from a commercial PCB 
maker. I have no intention of making hundreds of them at home.

The home made boards, ONE, TWO, or at most THREE, would be ONLY to 
verify the PCB layout. With that in mind, I would HAVE to make those 
few, home brew boards DIRECTLY from the layout that I create in a PCB 
design program. Otherwise, it is still prone to mistakes and 
therefore useless.

Vias are a problem, but my circuit is simple so this may not be 
overly difficult. First, I can probably solder some wires in vias 
that are under the chips. Just use a close cutting pliers to trim 
them as flat as possible. The specs for a -DW Plastic Small Outline 
package, which I intend to use, show a 0.004" to 0.012" clearance 
between the bottom of the package and the board. The copper thickness 
will add a bit more to this. I would verify the connection(s) before 
installing the chip. A little extra bending on the chip leads will 
create a bit more space for them. Tedious, but possible. And this is 
ONLY to verify the design.

Sounds like toner transfer may be the way to go. I could always get 
laser/Zerox style copies made at a local service. I have the ability 
to drill it, no problem there.