In a similar boat I was initially using a free template from templateworld.com which I hacked into what I wanted.
I recently ditched that and switched to using blueprint (http://www.blueprintcss.org/) as a framework. There isn't an overall finished look out of the box, but it is a much better foundation.
A very simple grid comes off looking remarkably clean, I now understand everything in the layout and feel like I am in control of the design rather than changing template stuff until it magically looks more or less right!
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In a similar boat I was initially using a free template from templateworld.com which I hacked into what I wanted.
I recently ditched that and switched to using blueprint (http://www.blueprintcss.org/) as a framework. There isn't an overall finished look out of the box, but it is a much better foundation.
A very simple grid comes off looking remarkably clean, I now understand everything in the layout and feel like I am in control of the design rather than changing template stuff until it magically looks more or less right!