Dreameaver pain in the ass? Nah... Dreamweaver is way faster and less of a pain in the ass than hand coding... I would take Dreamweaver any day over the competition, especially since you can get plugins for Dreamweaver that automate site building.
Most companies want you to have skills using Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, etc.... mandatory so if you like doing graphics, get used to it, use it, and have fun... work should be fun, not a pain...
If you can use Photoshop you should be able to use Dreamweaver...