Reduce the header width and move up the sidebar area

Hello, I am building a theme based on the Toolbox starter theme (http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/toolbox) I am running remotely so can’t provide a link to the work in progress. However the problem I have seems pretty simple. I want to essentially slide the elements from the sidebar so that it is flush with the top, the same level as the header.
I have removed the nav menu elements from the header php file and also removed the main and primary divs in the original code meant to keep the content and sidebar on the same level. I have tried to fix the width of the content and the header so that the sidebar can simply bump up. Nothing is working. It seems that perhaps the fact that the page is separated into a header and a home php they become two separate blocks. Perhaps I could get some advice on how to integrate the header php with the rest of the page.

My question is whether header.php files themselves always extend the full width of the themes, or how I might go about making this simple adjustment. I would much appreciate any advice, thank you.