First, kudos to you! I did the same thing you're doing now about two years ago. It's been so much fun.
For the spoke thing... It sounds like the previous owner may have owned a spoke wrench and tightened the crap out of some (all?) of them... give the spokes a light tap with your finger.. all of them.. do all the spokes on the same side of the wheel(s) give pretty close to the same tone? If not, you may need the spoke tension on the wheel looked at -- lest you begin to have a spoke breaking epidemic on your hands. Unless you want to buy a spoke tension tool and try it yourself (something I haven't done) the $10 spent at the LBS on this task is money well-invested, IMO.