Create a Wordpress Template

I ONLY want to deal with the actual developer / coder and not a middle man or company of many employees. I'm looking for a "bad ass" web developer to ramp up my web design company. I want to start off by creating a wordpress theme for my own web developing company site. I'm looking for someone I can use on a regular basis. This site is mainly a test. What's hugely important to me is how efficient your code is and the base theme you build off of. My site needs to be screaming fast. Before I choose you, I would like to test the base theme you build off of to make sure it meets my requirements. I've been testing base themes and so far the one on my test site is very quick. http://www.fantze.com. Please notice at the bottom you can see I am testing the amount of DB queries and the speed of the DB queries. I use a plugin called (WPDB Profiling) to diagnose the speed and efficiency of the theme. Please feel free to try it out on your own themes and notice the speed of mine. This is the theme currently on my site if you want to check it out. [login to view URL] If I choose this theme as a base theme can you work with it and customize it? If not what is your preferred method or base theme? Do you have a theme that incorporates the [login to view URL] framework for SEO purposes? I prefer avoiding a plugin for this. I've seen functions you can add to the [login to view URL] file that will insert this data. Do you provide different mock ups or allow me to suggest changes? What are the steps I follow if I choose you. What I want from the theme: * html5 and css3 * responsive design * three vertical columns center is for content * Total width of site in full display should be 1000px * Only images when necessary * use image sprites when possible * Use only wordpress functions to get mysql data and not custom functions. * w3c compliant I would like to see some of the previous sites you created.. You be the designer and come up with professional design. I know how to code but I'm not a designer. Please provide me a price and what it includes.