If you worked with a vBulletin coder whose quality of work and coding skills you found to be expert-like, I'd appreciate any recommendations.

Art, I have not used a coder before, but I'd recommend to check out:
http://www.yourskinner.com/index.php

Marc, that is a terrific lead, thank you.

I was actually keyword searching the web yesterday and came across this site from another forum. They do indeed look respectable and their portfolio contains good quality work. Some of the recent work includes templates that are very original and that is reassuring.

Best,