A call to action within text is stronger than graphical ads, as people ignore anything they think looks like an advertisement.

A home button should be on all pages except the homepage somewhere on the top left of the screen. A link home from the logo should also exist but is not enough on its own.

If items are given an equal visual weight, their order isn’t that important. A good example is the role based IA on the http://www.hfea.gov.uk/ website.

Lastly… wireframes always make a page look far busier than it will be in a designed version.