Congratulations! You bought a great car. The Civics are very dependable vehicles and seem to last forever. It appears that from your question statement that you have 2 possible issues.
1) Your front brake calipers have a steel piston assembled into them, which when you press your brake pedal, forces brake fluid, via the master cylinder, through the brake lines and into your caliper. As this fluid builds pressure in the caliper, the piston is pushed out, coming into contact with the brake pad, forcing it against the rotor, sandwiching it between the inner and outer pads, which (hopefully) stops your car. When you release the brake pedal, the brake fluid is drawn back into the resovoir allowing the caliper piston to retract. This retraction is due to the piston seal relaxing back into it's groove, which draws the piston back into the caliper, thereby, releasing the pad contact with the rotor. With this said it seems most possible that the piston may have seized, and is not allowing the piston to retract, which would allow the pad to fully release from the rotor. These calipers are not hard to replace and pricing is all over the board, depending on whether you use OE or aftermarket ($30.00-$150.00) If you replace these, you'll want to get a decent set of pads loaded into them.
2) The caliper floats on a mounting bracket, that is suspended by 2 mounting pins. (at least in this case) If these pins are not properly lubicated, or have seized from having set without use for a good while, this could also be the problem. I would have someone with brake experience check the pins first to make sure that the caliper slides smoothly. If it doesn't, buy a pin and boot kit and replace, with sufficient lubricant, and you should be ready to roll. If the caliper slides, then you are most likely the owner of a seized caliper piston. I know it sounds bad, but it's not. The caliper is self contained, and can be removed pretty easily. Just remember to take the old calipers to the shop, if you do it yourself, because these are very rebuildable, and have a "core charge", much like returning a bad battery. It may also be a good idea to ensure that the rotors are smooth, while you have the calipers off, so that when the brakes are back in working order, you will have smooth even wear on your brake pads. Sorry for the length, just wanted to explain what the problem could be, and what caused it. In the market these days, an informed consumer, is much less likely to be taken advantage of. I wish you the best, and would like to hear back from you on how things turned out for you and the Civic.
