Thanks for the reply,
This is what ive managed to get together so far, it shows my posts but its a bit of a mess, text outside lines of the content area and same 3 posts cycle continuously down the page, one even comes up as full post.
Any ideas?
<?php
/*
Template Name: custom home
*/
?>
<?php
$et_ptemplate_settings = array();
$et_ptemplate_settings = maybe_unserialize(get_post_meta($post->ID, 'et_ptemplate_settings', true));
$fullwidth = isset($et_ptemplate_settings['et_fullwidthpage']) ? (bool) $et_ptemplate_settings['et_fullwidthpage'] : false;
$et_ptemplate_blogstyle = isset($et_ptemplate_settings['et_ptemplate_blogstyle']) ? (bool) $et_ptemplate_settings['et_ptemplate_blogstyle'] : false;
$et_ptemplate_showthumb = isset($et_ptemplate_settings['et_ptemplate_showthumb']) ? (bool) $et_ptemplate_settings['et_ptemplate_showthumb'] : false;
$blog_cats = isset($et_ptemplate_settings['et_ptemplate_blogcats']) ? (array) $et_ptemplate_settings['et_ptemplate_blogcats'] : array();
$et_ptemplate_blog_perpage = isset($et_ptemplate_settings['et_ptemplate_blog_perpage']) ? (int) $et_ptemplate_settings['et_ptemplate_blog_perpage'] : 10;
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div id="wrap"<?php if ($fullwidth) echo ' class="no_sidebar"'; ?>>
<!-- Main Content-->
<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/content-top<?php if ($fullwidth) echo ('-full'); ?>.gif" alt="content top" class="content-wrap" />
<div id="content">
<!-- Start Main Window -->
<div id="main">
<?php get_template_part('includes/default'); ?>
<?php
$query = new WP_Query(array('orderby' => 'date', 'order' => 'DESC'));
if ($query->have_posts()) : while ($query->have_posts()) : $query->the_post();
?>
<div class="new_post entry clearfix">
<div class="postcontent">
<?php
$width = (int) get_option('polished_thumbnail_width_pages');
$height = (int) get_option('polished_thumbnail_height_pages');
$classtext = 'post_img';
$titletext = get_the_title();
$thumbnail = get_thumbnail($width, $height, $classtext, $titletext, $titletext);
$thumb = $thumbnail["thumb"];
?>
<?php if ($thumb <> '' && get_option('polished_page_thumbnails') == 'on') { ?>
<?php print_thumbnail($thumb, $thumbnail["use_timthumb"], $titletext, $width, $height, $classtext); ?>
<?php }; ?>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php wp_link_pages(array('before' => '<p><strong>' . esc_html__('Pages', 'Polished') . ':</strong> ', 'after' => '</p>', 'next_or_number' => 'number')); ?>
<div id="et_pt_blog">
<?php
$cat_query = '';
if (!empty($blog_cats))
$cat_query = '&cat=' . implode(",", $blog_cats);
else
echo '<!-- blog category is not selected -->';
?>
<?php
$et_paged = is_front_page() ? get_query_var('page') : get_query_var('paged');
?>
<?php query_posts("showposts=$et_ptemplate_blog_perpage&paged=" . $et_paged . $cat_query); ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<div class="et_pt_blogentry clearfix">
<h2 class="et_pt_title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<p class="et_pt_blogmeta"><?php esc_html_e('Posted', 'Polished'); ?> <?php esc_html_e('by', 'Polished'); ?> <?php the_author_posts_link(); ?> <?php esc_html_e('on', 'Polished'); ?> <?php the_time(get_option('polished_date_format')) ?> <?php esc_html_e('in', 'Polished'); ?> <?php the_category(', ') ?> | <?php comments_popup_link(esc_html__('0 comments', 'Polished'), esc_html__('1 comment', 'Polished'), '% ' . esc_html__('comments', 'Polished')); ?></p>
<?php
$thumb = '';
$width = 184;
$height = 184;
$classtext = '';
$titletext = get_the_title();
$thumbnail = get_thumbnail($width, $height, $classtext, $titletext, $titletext);
$thumb = $thumbnail["thumb"];
?>
<?php if ($thumb <> '' && !$et_ptemplate_showthumb) { ?>
<div class="et_pt_thumb alignleft">
<?php print_thumbnail($thumb, $thumbnail["use_timthumb"], $titletext, $width, $height, $classtext); ?>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><span class="overlay"></span></a>
</div> <!-- end .thumb -->
<?php }; ?>
<?php if (!$et_ptemplate_blogstyle) { ?>
<p><?php truncate_post(550); ?></p>
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" class="readmore"><span><?php esc_html_e('read more', 'Polished'); ?></span></a>
<?php } else { ?>
<?php
global $more;
$more = 0;
?>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php } ?>
</div> <!-- end .et_pt_blogentry -->
<?php endwhile; ?>
<div class="page-nav clearfix">
<?php
if (function_exists('wp_pagenavi')) {
wp_pagenavi();
} else {
?>
<?php get_template_part('includes/navigation'); ?>
<?php } ?>
</div> <!-- end .entry -->
<?php else : ?>
<?php get_template_part('includes/no-results'); ?>
<?php
endif;
wp_reset_query();
?>
</div> <!-- end #et_pt_blog -->
<?php edit_post_link(esc_html__('Edit this page', 'Polished')); ?>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div> <!-- end .post -->
</div>
<?php
endwhile;
endif;
wp_reset_postdata();
?>
</div>
<!-- End Main -->
<?php if (!$fullwidth) get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>