Need a better wordpress design for personal blog

I'm looking for a visually talented designer to create a stunning, but simple and intuitive design. I have a few examples that you can mimic, but add your own flair.

http://www.curtismock.com

As you can see, I currently have a plain wordpress template.  I want to have people say, "wow, look at this guy's blog, he must know what he's talking about!"  (this is where you come in)

I work in the health club industry, but I've been working behind the scenes under a company name.  It's time I break out on my own.  I feel a solid blog design will allow me to do just that. 

I need a blog that has a beautiful design, but the backend is easy enough to make changes to both content and the links, banners, etc. on the side bar.

I need you to tell me if I need the free wordpress blog service found at http://www.wordpress.com or the paid version at http://www.wordpress.org. I am not sure what I need.  I hope it is the free version.

I want a site that looks VERY similar to: http://www.marketingtechblog.com

Recreate as closely as possible.

See below for the specifics that I like on this site and what I would like to see changed....

- I am a big fan of red/gray/black/white theme similar to http://www.espn.com.
- The header on marketingtechblog.com is weak.  I need it to be stronger.  I like the headers found at: http://www.edge-book.com/blog/?79562180 and http://www.therandtoday.com . 
- The menu tabs on marketingtechblog.com are too plain.  I like tabs more like: http://www.ryanlee.com any tabs that change as you hover over it. 
- I want my picture on the header.  I will provide this attachment if 99designs allows me to do that. (You can add a design element to the pic if you want (faded, shadowing, etc.)
- Some type of tagline or subtitle can go on the header as well.  For now it can be: "A Fresh Perspective for the Health Club Industry"
- Background design of the header can be any graphical design you want.
- middle column must be white. It would also be nice to have a gray line separating each blog post, to make it a cleaner flow.
- On the right column, at the top will be a subscribe to the blog field (I can provide code, but a simple, sign up/first name/email address fields) Below that, the column headers can be: *Recent Posts, *Categories, *Archives, *Favorite Resources- Categories can be: Announcements, Resources, My Opinions, Personal Growth, Video Tips, Book Reviews, Current Events, Random
- The left column can just be for banner ads (feel free to put some placeholder ads in there for now or leave blank)
- Top tabs will be: *Home, *About, *Resources, *Products, *Contact (and the ability to add another tab later)
- The posts in the center column can follow the same format as marketingtechblog.comI hope this helps!  I just want a nice clean sexy design for my blog.  So even if I am not impressive, my blog is!!

- Just follow the overall look of the marketingtechblog, use nice graphics, change the color, and make the header a bit nicer and I'll be happy!  Don't do that, and I won't be happy :)