Just adding blocks on the front page only does not require a special template. That's standard block settings. "Show on only..." and "<front>.

I can't recall whether the "content bottom" region is standard in D7. But I did exactly what you want (D6) on http://www.bostonpublicschools.org

I simply floated the blocks in the content bottom region and gave them a width of 30% with a bit of right margin. No special template.

Nancy

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.

From: Hakan

Using Drupal 7 ... Zen theme as a base, created a subtheme etc. which went well.
After creating a tpl.php file just for the front page, I have now added a custom region
(between the main content and the footer) and added three blocks to this custom
region using the Block Administration page of the theme. Using weights
I can arrange the order of the three blocks I have, provided I want
them one below the other.

However, I want them side-by-side and I want each block to have some
custom formatting. After Googling the drupal site I found this link
http://drupal.org/node/1151704 which seems to address my problem.