Modernize and Repair Legacy WordPress Gallery for a family website

I have a private family photo archive website running on an older, now-unsupported custom WordPress theme. The site contains a large amount of historical media and gallery content accumulated over many years.

The current theme no longer works reliably with modern WordPress plugins and newer PHP/WordPress versions, so I’m looking for an experienced WordPress developer to carefully modernize and stabilize the site without disrupting the existing content structure.

What I need:

• First, an hourly discovery/assessment phase where you inspect:
– the WordPress installation
– theme files
– plugins
– database structure
– gallery/media dependencies

Please let me know:
– your hourly rate
– how many hours you expect the assessment to take

• A modernization roadmap that preserves:
– existing album categorization
– media organization
– gallery structure/layout
– URLs and internal links
– media IDs wherever possible

The website contains a large historical media archive, so preservation and compatibility are more important than redesign.

• Implementation phase (hourly or milestone-based once scope is understood), including:
– updating/rebuilding/stabilizing the theme for compatibility with current WordPress and PHP versions
– restoring plugin compatibility
– fixing minor layout/UI issues
– improving maintainability and future upgrade compatibility
– ensuring backups/staging procedures are used before major changes

Important:
Please do NOT propose a complete rebuild unless absolutely necessary. The priority is preserving the existing content structure and gallery organization.

Please include in your proposal:
• Your hourly rate
• Estimated assessment hours
• Similar WordPress repair/migration projects you have completed
• Experience with unsupported or legacy themes
• Links/examples of older WordPress sites you stabilized or modernized

Experience with:
• custom themes
• media-heavy WordPress sites
• plugin compatibility repair
• database migrations
• legacy WordPress upgrades

will be highly valued.

I’m ready to begin once I find the right developer.