I have been searching for how to replace home page with custom. I have built the header to my satisfaction but am looking to add three custom areas below (should they be widgets and how do I go about adding/styling them?). I have test page up at http://74.115.229.75/. Thanks for any tips or help. I am pretty new to wordpress but long time programmer and this is my first custom template. I see custom template I created at Sample Page - Page Attributes but how does this work for index page which is not showing anywhere. Here is the template I would like to build

you can add a three celled 'New Widget Area' to the 'Configure Header Area' option.

Okay i see what you are saying but I have the page partially working at sample page http://74.115.229.75/?page_id=2 - Is there an easy way to make sample page the home page? I only want them to be able to update the left column anyhow and then pull in posts into the middle column. I need to build a bunch of different templates for this site. A side note - how would I go about adding a three celled 'New Widget Area' as I might want to use that in a template.

found the place to set the home page so I am off and running. Could you please answer this question though? How would I go about adding a three celled 'New Widget Area' as I might want to use that in a template.

take the code example that is shone in the example (in the theme options) and add it to the 'configure Header Area' option. You should use your playground site and experiment, see what different things do.

I have been unable to sucessfully change the default homepage, how can I disable it all together?

http://atadtek.dyndns.org

The home page is the one you specify at dashboard->settings->Reading->Front page displays

ps, if that is your actual avatar, I'd suggest etting rid of it. I would never hire someone with that as an image of them self. My two cents.

I've set a static front page and blanked out Home link in Page Menu Bar but it's still showing up. I have deleted browser cache, deleted cache for wp super cache.

look thru the theme menu options

found it, should have done that but wasn't using my head.

Thanks