binaries into deb's [newbie]

[Kevin Coyner <kevin@rustybear.com>]

I recently moved from RH and SuSE over to Debian, and wished I would
have done it sooner.  The whole distro is nice, but in particular
apt-get is great.

So far I've only installed standard tools/utilities/programs readily
available via apt-get and stable/testing.  I'd like to avoid unstable if
possible.

Question:  how do I maintain the robustness of apt-get yet be able to
download binaries and patches and compile them myself?  

Example:  I use and love Mutt.  Testing has v1.4, which I've apt-get
installed, but I'd like to recompile it with a few patches that I like.
But if I do the compiling, make and make install myself, then I lose the
ability to track it in apt-get.  

I have to believe that after compiling I can put it all into a deb
package, but how difficult is it, and could someone please point out a
good reference.  I've looked for a reference, but haven't found anything
solid yet.

Thanks
Kevin