Breaking the loop into two section on homepage

I am working on a site where I would like to have a section at the top that displays the most recent post from each top level category in two columns with title, featured image, meta and snippet. Below that, I would like the nine most recent posts except for those included in the top section displayed in three columns with title, featured image and meta. If anyone knows the solution to this or could point me in the right direction to help with getting this figured out, I would greatly appreciate it.

Almost there:
http://urbangardensweb.bonchadotcom.com/