Yup, just edit the templates to how you want them. It's free, but there's a better version that costs $ I think..

vbadvanced is free you can download it at thier site if you registered or here on vb.org

The portal is very much html/css driven only its using variables to replace your content dynamically.

how hard is this to get going? Sounds like something that could be great. Thanks

Its takes a few minutes to install literally. Customizing the html... well depends on how good you are and how quick you get used to templates and how they function in relation to the site.