One of my friends at school and i built the RiverdaleRobotics site from the ground up using PHP and MySQL. all pages (in multiple languages) are editable through a simple web interface :
Click here for the content entry demo
it took us quite a while to get the system running at 100%, but, now it's great, and super easy to use.
we also have an inventory system, and as mentioned before, Multiple languages.
all members on the team have accounts, which are used to access an email system, and the member pages (so team members can edit their own bios)
the ENTIRE site was written by us (ok, fine, not the menus, they came from DynamicDrive.com, but are heavily modified) and we're trying to get rid of the google stuff which kills validation.
everything was written in text editors with auto-highlight (more usefull than you think) and lots of trial and error.
the homepage is
http://riverdalerobotics.com/
the demo page is
http://riverdalerobotics.com/?demo&page=demo
if people want copies of bits of the source, wait a month or so, as we're about to do a massive overhaul of the back end (to make the source more compact and sensible...) after that, PM me, and we can talk...
overall, i like being in full control of the site, sometimes that can make all the difference, but then again, with power comes responsibility, and maintenance! so you have to be prepared to work. a lot.
-Z