Before we look at modifying a template, we need to choose a template for our sample site.
There are many free and commercial templates out there, and originally I intended to choose a template that we could distribute with the book, but after looking at some of the clubs I mentioned above, and knowing that our site is going to be a real site, I found the Vertigo template at Rocket Theme, and it fits really well with our sample site plans. Our site is aimed at helping people with housing and real estate, so something that feels light and open, like a well-designed house, will probably feel better for our customers, putting them in a good mood while browsing the site. The cloudy style with the light blue, white, and green definitely captures this feeling well.
However, as mentioned above, we want to make at the very least some image changes to our template so that it is more personal and isn't immediately recognizable as a template. Unfortunately, the parallax effect at...