i got excited when it started to load and i saw the banner, then the content areas showed and well... lets jsut leave them out of this lol i give it about a 7.5/10 for your first template.
I agree banner and borders are hotter than everything else, so i will remake content areas later, when i will get more experience.
I would make the nav text a bit smaller and maybe just keep the background of that a solid color and make the text darker. I think that would show up a bit better. Overall its a good template for your first, nice job.