[Theme:Underscores?] Difficulty Creating a Horizontal/Grid-Based Posts Page

Forewarning: I have a very limited understanding of CSS and PHP, and have used the building of my first blog as a very hands-on learning experience.

Anyway, I really like the minimalist layout of Thought Catolog including the snippets beneath. I’ve been trying to play around mimicking a similar style with Underscores and the 960 grid system, but it doesn’t make any sense.

I was looking at this post and it’s a question really similar to mine, but where would be a good launching point? Do I use 960 or underscores, or abandon them all together? Should I even use a framework? I guess at this point, I’m not even sure where to start.

Thanks so much for your help. If you need me to clarify anything, let me know.