I actually do not hate the vBulletins CMS system for a simple board. The CMS does suffer from some serious resource issues that large boards might have a hard time getting around.
When you want something so custom it is more expedient to create a new page in your own coding style to get the job done. You won't have all the vbulletin conventions to worry about --Besides modifying all that vBulletin code, what a testing headache. This way you will only have yourself to blame! Have fun!