It turned out well enough. I did turn to ChatGPT to work through the design challenges I encountered with the various blocks. I used it as a collaborative partner, but it was me doing everything on Wordpress.

Here are the pros, I learned a few things I didn't know about the inner workings of blocks and that was actually pretty helpful. I learned when to add additional CSS to the theme vs. when to do it in a block. There were other things I learned along the way. So while it took me a long time to work things out, it was also a learning process for me. So not a total waste of time. These are things I know that I can use in the future. BUT, 10 hours is not sustainable. Which is why my sister's suggestion is sounding pretty appealing.