i think if the site is for a website/coding prtfolio then a custom built site is what you should be building.
it's nt always the case, but depending on who your clients are, (or potential clients) they might know that wordress is a download and that you havent built it yourself... then they will make some conclusions from that.
wordpress is great for somethings, but i feel it is not really suitable for what you need.
i think you should make a CSS site with good coding. at the very least you will learn a whole load of stuff that will be relevant to your work.
i don't know what coding etc you know, so i dont mean to be patronising in any way
check out these CSS designs:
http://forum.programming-designs.com...c.php?pid=4324
i really think you cannot beat clean, tidy CSS websites, especially for your proposed site.