So, if it is a personal blog, that means it can cover a lot of topics, infact it can cover any topic under the sun. Thats a good clue. I have made up my mind. My website will be a personal blog. That way I can cover many topics, any topics.
I was also going to shortlist a paid theme. Rush was one option, because it gave a fab magazine layout. But, accidently I stumbled upon Suffusion by Sayontan Sinha. This one particularly swept me away by the sheer number of customisations which can be done. Thats a boon and a bane. Right now finding a tough time to finalise my theme settings.
Design, widgets, html, coding are good till a certain point, beyond which readers are going to come back only if the content is good. That part atleast you are spot on, and I need a lot of work to do.