I'm definitely what you'd call a "lay person."
I highly recommend Jeffrey L. Singman's Everyday Life in Medieval Europe, which primarily focuses on 13th century England and provides information on life in a village, a major castle, a monastery (in France) and a town. It's an easy read, and includes a few maps/drawings and tables of wages and prices to help you get a sense of what things were worth to who. Singman does an excellent job of laying out how medieval life functioned on a day to day basis, much better than anyone else I've read so far.
Paul B. Newman's Daily Life in the Middle Ages is also worth a read. While Singman does a much better job of showing how medieval life functioned, Newman provides extra information on things like cooking, clothing, furniture, hygiene, etc. It makes for a useful supplement. His other books, Growing up in the Middle Ages and Travel and Trade in the Middle Ages are also worth a read if you want to know more about those aspects.
Joseph and Frances Gies's Life in a Medieval Castle, although quite outdated in many regards, does nonetheless provide some excellent information on how an aristocratic household functioned - something missing from Singman - and some valuable information on how hunting was conducted.