Wordpress Theme Customization (Functional & Design Work)

I have a wordpress theme that needs to be customized. I need new functions and some design related work done, so you HAVE to be very good at PHP, JS, HTML5, CSS and wordpress in general. Tasks: --------- 1) Currently the homepage looks like this [login to view URL] As you can see, the featured images (GIFs) for each post load nicely. But this will slow down the page load as each GIF is like 3mb or 4mb in size! Hence, I want a non-animated still image to load first - then you should load the GIF when the user hovers his mouse over the picture. 2) In the homepage view, I want ALL the post tags and categories to be displayed under the image. Currently, only one category is displayed even if multiple categories and tags are selected. 3) Upon clicking a post, It loads a page like this [login to view URL] I do not want the featured image to be on the top. Just remove it completely. 4) Also, for some weird reason, there are no next/previous post links under the single post view. So I definitely want you to add that. 5) I want the search bar on the side to be right under the logo, so move it to the top. [login to view URL] 6) Long episode titles should scroll the text on mouse hover, using css. [login to view URL] Don't use javascript or marquee or anything. This can be done using CSS. For example, it should scroll like this. [login to view URL] 7) This theme is an infinite scrolling theme. You should change the default css loading animation with this one, [login to view URL] Use the second loading animation here. Also change the color of the loading animation to red. 8) I don't want this to happen on mobiles. [login to view URL] The boxes shouldn't get long like that. They must maintain the aspect ratio while shrinking. ----------------------------- That's all for now. I might have more tasks for you later of course. I'm willing to pay you hourly so this shouldn't be a problem. I want this done as soon as possible, so I need someone who KNOWS what they're doing. You will be preferred if your past work is related to stuff like this. I have attached the theme and its child theme below if you want to have a look. Note that this theme is stock and has not been modified before. It would be nice if you give me an estimate of how many HOURS it will take you to complete the tasks I've mentioned above. P.S. - Don't bother applying with automated responses. You have to convince me why I should hire you and automated responses are not a great start. It's just lazy as hell and I won't give your profile a second look. I'm looking for actual professionals here.