Hello, I have never used wordpress before really neither have I coded a theme. I have built a Joomla site before. I have designed a layout and am over the next week going to attempt to wordpress it. Here is a preview of my site let me know if you think this will be difficult to convert. Thanks
wordpress is not as complex as joomla. It builds simple and light if you need more performance just install the wordpress plugin. http://thegroovie dot com
There are plenty of existing themes that look similar to your design. Search some template sites before trying to code yourself...
not difficult at all. You can start learn coding WP Themes here: http://www.wpdesigner.com/2007/02/19/so-you-want-to-create-wordpress-themes-huh/ it's very easy