Designing CMS layout, not sure where to start

[otectom]

Hello all, as you can see by my post count I am pretty new to vb. I have searched the boards (lightly) for related topics but have not found conclusive answers to my specific questions.

I am currently in the process of moving my entire website from wordpress to vb. The problem is that I'm not sure where to start to modify the layout of the homepage like I would like it. I'm not looking for an exact copy of my wp site (although it would be nice), but simply to make vb look a little bit more like it.

My wp site is located at - http://www.overtheedgecustoms.com
My vb site is located at - http://www.teamotec.net

I understand how to handle the side bars in vb so we can skip past that. What I'm most concerned with is the layout of the post previews. I would LOVE to incorporate the image rotator that I currently have on my wp site. Is there a plugin for such a thing or would it have to be coded in manually? If so where? If the rotator is a little to advantageous, where/how can I increase the size of the image associated with the first post? This is the most important thing for me to get right currently, as my site is focused on high quality photography, where large colorful images count.

After that is taken care of I would like to modify the posts below as well. On my wp site you will see there are three headings in white text. Below these headings there are post previews. The previews are sorted by category under each heading. Is it possible to control vb this way? If not is it possible to force posts to skip the first position without having to always set which post hits the first position?

OR is it possible to convert the wp theme into vb? This would be the easiest option for me, but I don't know if such a thing is even possible.

OR does anyone have another creative solution that would allow me to keep the look and feel of my wp site with full integration into vb? (ex: display the wp homepage minus the header and footer AND merge all users so comments can be posted in wp with single vb account login?)

Any input on this project would be greatly appreciated as I am currently in way over my head.