I've been recently looking to build a theme or have one built. It's been a bit of a pain trying to track down the best practices and tools to use for theme deve

I've been recently looking to build a theme or have one built. It's been a bit of a pain trying to track down the best practices and tools to use for theme development. Can anyone offer some guidance? Does a framework like Genesis help or hurt in the long-run? Are tools like http://roots.io http://roots.io getting traction? What are the essential things to require when hiring someone to build a theme for you?