Magazine Basic theme – display posts by category

I have seen several posts that closely resemble what I am trying to do, but unfortunately I am PHP illiterate and cannot get it do what I want it to do.

I am running the latest version of the Magazine Basic theme by Bavotasan.com, on WP 2.8.4, at my site here: http://www.wellesleyservices.ca I am using template option #3, which displays the most recent post at the top, and two posts in two columns on the second line below it, and then the remaining posts in three columns below that. I have it set to show 6 posts:

[1]
[2] [3]
[4] [5] [6]

What I would really like to do, however, is to display the most recent “featured” category post at the top, but then the most recent post from my five categories in the columns underneath it.

Each post could be followed by a title list of say the next 2-3 posts in each category, but the first post should show an image and excerpt as it now does.

I know this is tricky, but what I am looking for will appear more like a professional news site. Think National Post’s front page.

Any help would be appreciated!