My experience in life is whenever someone says, "It's easy" - it means they know what they're doing. I'm guessing you know what your doing...
When I have to remodel rental property I hire the best designer I can find, pay their 'per hour' rate and get the blueprints and sizes of all cabinets, fixtures, styles and colors that are 'in' and then I hand the work over to a handyman... I tell the designer up front that I'm not going to be buying materials from them so they know to charge based on design time. Designers often work and get a cut of what you buy from them. To be fair put the truth on the table and then ask their hourly rate. Most contractors are not designers...and it's the design that gives the 'wow' to a room. Also contractors know how to follow a blueprint... solve the 'who buys materials' issue too.
Home remodeling/repair is mostly about having the right tool.
Each time I did a job, I bought a new tool. For example, I have plaster ceilings in my current house. Not drywall. Skim coat plaster.
The previous owner primed them with latex primer. This ceiling was pealing in various places. The Benjamin Moore guy said the only way to fix them is to scrape off the paint and primer down to the plaster. SO, I bought two foot long 4” wide razor scrapers. You buy 4” carbide replacement blades in packs of four. I scraped the ceilings of three rooms. Then you have to go back a fill the gouges with drywall mud. Then sand. Then prime with OIL BASED primer. Then paint with latex paint. It was not difficult. It was a lot of labor to do correctly.
I still have a den with a popcorn ceiling. I still need to do that at some point. It makes a big mess.