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.