I am trying to decide whether or not I need to purchase the Genesis framework or something else to develop a new website. I have Genesis running on one of my websites but I didn’t do the initial development, so don’t have a copy of the framework and child themes etc. Plus I wanted to know if there was something way cooler out there too. Any suggestions?

@casmccullough I too use Genesis framework and it is has the best schematically laid out out-of-the-box set of WP themes available..bar none every SEO we tell you that one.
However, there are other alternatives (themes) that do cost some money that are very good. Where I shop is at theme forest for my themes and look at the changelogs see if the theme is being updates, look in the comments see problems what others are having. That will give you a clue as to any potential problems.
There are no free templates that you should consider as support is minimal (and you will need support), re-working some areas require you to understand .php.

Genesis is highly recommended by a word press academy (sorry, can’t remember the teacher’s name). @casmccullough

I’ve been trying the new Theme Blvd framework by Jason Bobich and it’s really nice and very easy to explain to my clients.

Customization is easy though the child themes he has already started for you. Each theme as comments that are quite extensive and he answers questions very quickly.

His themes are available on Themeforest or you can see the platform here  http://www.wpjumpstart.com/ .

@roguecitrus Dawn, Jumpstart looks great! Very clean!  @rich-brooks thanks for chiming in. Does that ecom plugin sit within your wordpress site or do you have to have a subdomain set up for another wordpress site? Just curious!

Great thanks @rich-brooks I think that is the way to go ….