How to Simplify Blog to 1 column, plain white, & custom header image?

Ok- So, I just deleted my old blog because I want to simplify without so much clutter.
The blog is going to be mostly for photos/images and illustrations, some text sometimes.
What I want:
-White background
-When I post, I don’t want it to open as a new post when clicked
-When it gets to the bottom of the page, a “previous” or “older” page which leads to the same exact formatting.
-The only thing I might want is to maybe have a small archive/months organization at the bottom or maybe on the side
**-A custom header image! Custom size too

This blog is almost exactly what i want:
http://www.katborchart.com/blog

BUT I want a place to archive it by month/week/day or something , even if it doesn’t show on the viewers side.
I currently have this blog installed: WP-Andreas01 2.0 . I can re-install any theme since there is no content yet.
My blog:

http://www.josephalexanderphotography.com/blog

I also have the theme options panel installed but don’t really know how it works.

Can anyone help?!