First off here's the theme file I'm using for everything.
http://roughtoiletpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/RTP1.zip
(You can see it thus far at http://www.roughtoiletpaper.com too)
It's a modified version of Giraffe2 (I got a friend who codes but has no WP experience to help me modify it) and so far
I've got things close to what I want.
Here's a mockup of what I was aiming for.
http://roughtoiletpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/Design1280.jpg
Basically, I need a way to put 2 custom blocks below the buttons (or at least images, since that's what I'd place and change in those 2 blocks anyway) with a latest posts thing next to them (I figured you needed to use a plugin for this, reccomendations and where to place in code???) and finally I'd like to remove the space between the buttons AND add a searchbar next to them.
If anyone could help me with the required changes it would be mucho grande appreciante.