One thing that particularly stood out was your 'under construction' gif. As a general rule, avoid saying 'this site is under construction' - the vast majority of websites out there are always under constant modification and upgrades, so it's a given that most sites you visit are gonna be 'under constuction'.
Secondly, both of you (if you haven't already and are just really good at hiding the right stuff) should consider downloading a blog application/script. Disable the unnecessary features and use it to base your site off.
Apart from that, both of your sites are looking promising. Get some good content up, clean up the designs a bit and you'll be on your way to having a great website.