Greetings all!

My wife and I are building some decks on my house using ipe wood for
the deck boards and railings. Those who are familiar with ipe know
that it is VERY heavy and dense; one must pre-drill for every screw and
bolt. Our 18-volt cordless (Ryobi) drill has been great for drilling
little holes for the #10 screws in the deckboards and in the railings,
but it is nowhere nearly up to the task of drilling 1/2 inch holes
through ipe 4X4's for the lag bolts on the railing posts.

My 18-volt cordless is great for almost every job I have to do, and
thus I don't have tons of other uses for a heavy duty, monster-sized
corded drill. I'd like to get something that is powerful enough to be
able to get this deck job done, but I am not eager to drift into the
spectacularly expensive realm of the professional-caliber, gargantuan
mega-tools. Any recommendations?

Also, my wife and I could use a router, but have almost no experience
in this area. We do not have a specific project in mind, but I think
we would benefit from a router that has maximum versatility. I don't
think that we'd need a particularly powerful, ultra-heavy duty router.
What are the advantages of a plunge router versus a fixed table router?
I suppose something under $120 US dollars would be nice, but we would
be willing to spend more if necessary. Are there models which are dual
purpose -- perhaps they are a hand-held plunge router which can be
attached to a table to do fixed table routing?
Thanks in advance for any advice!

Chuck