I continued working on the current dikini.net theme. It is an intresting exercise. So here is what I aim for:

1. modular stylesheets: typography.css, framing.css, colors.css & friends
2. page.tpl.php should allow for a multicolumn design, with arbitrary column order
3. vertical positioning of elements within columns
4. no faux columns
5. a series of variation themes(styles), based on different layouts and colour schemes

Status:
1 - complete, including an unofficial, experimental split of drupal.css
2,3,4 - half there
5 - have a couple of colour schemes, but it will wait for the time being