Does anyone know it if is possible to make the sidebar start at the top of the page and be completely to the left of the header instead of directly under. Does that make sense?

Thanks.

The sidebars and header are table cells so you can't do that directly but you could take all the code out of the Configure Header Area field in ATO>Style & edit Header and then use means other than %pages, %logo, etc to add a menu, and logo etc.