While its very easy to get a Wordpress site up and running, basic themes just never seem work and look just they way that I want them too. So I started with a simple theme WP-PortalTheme and then began changing it here and there.
Themes Wiki is a great place to learn how to create your own theme from scratch.
The navigation bar came from this awesome site:Sohtanaka.com: Horizontal-sub-nav-with-css-jquery/
I found that site by following the links form here:WebStockBox: 50-cool-css-menus-free-source-codes-tutorials/
In the end I may just give up and hire a designer, but while I’m tinkering with it its pretty fun.