Joomla 1.5 to 2.5 - Major Update of Established Site

Project Description:
I have an established information and community website regarding natural health and specific chronic health conditions - The Environmental Illness Resource (www.ei-resource.org). The site has >5000 pages, 30k visits and 60k pageviews per month.

The site is currently running Joomla! 1.5.26 and I require professional assistance to upgrade Joomla! to 2.5.9. The task also includes updating various 3rd party extensions and successfully migrating their data to Joomla 2.5.x. Additionally I want to shift the focus of the site to community rather than news so wish to have JomSocial as the site's homepage i.e. going to the root URL (www.ei-resource.org) displays the JomSocial login, activity stream etc. Further to this I will require assistance choosing the best site template for my requirements and some Joomla! and JomSocial template customization, primarily just matching my current color scheme but perhaps shifting elements around the page also.

FYI the major 3rd party extensions I currently use and will be keeping are:

JomSocial
Kunena
jReviews
SEF Advance

I also use MyBlog and JomComment but believe these are no longer supported for Joomla 2.5? They have been buggy anyway, particularly JomComment, So I would like to export their data to more streamlined extensions (DISQUS for comments if possible). I am also interested in integrating CometChat into the site for greater community/member appeal.

I have started some of the work myself. jReviews is at the latest version (2.4.4.4), Jomsocial is as far as it can go with J1.5 (JomSocial 2.6.x) and Kunena is at 2.0.4. I now need a professional Joomla! developer to move things up to Joomla 2.5.x and provide help with template customization as I am not skilled or knowledgeable enough to do this myself.

I am looking for someone who has a lot of experience working with Joomla! and as many of the extensions listed as possible. You must also be familiar working with one or more of the major Joomla! template frameworks (e.g. Gantry, Warp, ) and able to advise me on the best fit and be able to customize a template based on one of these to my site's requirements. Experience and confidence modifying JomSocial template also important.

I should also note the site has come all the way from Joomla 1.0 and has had performance issues and niggling problems with J1.5 (e.g. registration/login/session issues) that need resolving.

I realize there is a lot of work here. I have a limited budget but am happy to work closely with the right person to provide any further information required to get things done as quickly as possible. I would also consider additional payment if the work takes an excessive amount of time.

Please feel free to request additional information before bidding and take a look at the site as it currently is at www.ei-resource.org. It is important that I get this update right so need to work with someone who takes pride in their work and wants to do jobs right, rather than simply as fast as possible.

Thank you in advance for your bids and I look forward to working with you!