As for the checklist, db design practice:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B352EB1F-D3CA-44EE-893E-9E07339C1F22&displaylang=en

As for the max rowsize:

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/pagesize.asp

As for max. no of columns:

Take a look at BOL for 'Maximum capacity specifications

As for performance monitoring:

Sorry, there you need to wait for other members. I'm not too familiar with it.

HTH