Wordpress Template Conversion

We currently have a website which is up and running and want to upgrade it and change it using a wordpress template which we purchased. We want this template to be implemented and modified for use as our own website, which is a portfolio style of website. We want to just to be able to give the freelancer enough information and examples so we can get the website to look and function how we want using the template. Things that will need to be done will be: - the template has a set of gallery styles and the template may need to be modified to get the functionality and look that we want for the website. - configuring the website to the basic structure we desire - including menus, categories, about & contact pages, colours & logos - setting up a placing a basic number of our projects with our existing text and photos from the website into the new template - once the basic website is setup, we want to be able to input more projects ourselves - ensure that the website is still functioning from an SEO point of view. - if the template doesn't have some of the functionality we need, modifications to the template may need to be done. Hopefully we won't need to do too much of this. - the template will need to be built whilst the current website is running. We do not have much experience with using wordpress and don't have the time to learn to convert template into the website we want. But we want to be able to add and change the projects that we have on the website once the job is complete.