hello!
i've got a wireframe/basic layout that i'd like to implement in drupal. 
i have some BASIC php skills, but am quite comfortable with xhtml & advanced CSS.  I'm also in the middle of reading "Pro Drupal Development" - so i'm somewhat familiar with the idea of replacing certain template pages in order to customize the look of specific pages.  (note, i actually haven't DONE that yet... just read about it in the book) - but it seems pretty doable!

i think my site can be broken down into three page types:

1. The Home Page
   
2. Content Pages
3. Portfolio Pages

you can see a wireframe illustration of my homepage here: 
http://img30.picoodle.com/img/img30/8/6/18/f_homepagem_68ba209.gif 

But, I dont know how to organize all the content types on the front page...

Questions:

1. Should i sent the homepage up as a "story", or as a "page"?
   
2. Is positioning the blog teaser (right column), and the "image gallery & caption" (left column) simply a matter of what theme i have installed?
3. Should i create a custom content type for the image gallery & text description (left column)?
4. Is there some other question i should be asking in regards to how to carry this out?

i have drupal installed at http://drupal.fresh-off.com , but there's not much to see yet.

Like others, i'm trying to document my learning process, and hope one day to be able to publish it for others to learn from!
Thanks for any help you can give me.  Also, if this question has been answered in the forums (which it likely has) - suggestions on what to search for might be helpful as well!

thanks every so much  for reading, and any help you're able to offer!

brendan