Some Ideas, Please

I have been thinking about getting a dog for years..I must have spent hours at petfinder.com looking at pictures...I have had dogs, but it has been 20 years or more since I have lived with one. The last one that I had was 1/2 Irish Setter and 1/2 Golden Retriever...as a kid, my family had Poodles (standard) Rhodesian Ridgebacks, German Shepherds, a Boxer, and a Schipperke...I loved them all. My activity level is low, and although I do have a fenced yard that is kind of large...I have roses planted everywhere, so there is not much room for a dog to play...I live in a wonderful neighborhood where people walk their dogs on a regular basis. A Chocolate Lab lives near here and I have been able to watch him grow up, he is a gorgeous thing! (His owner is kind of cute too, but I digress)My DH and I, also have property near town, and we could go up there more often if we had a dog that needed to run...We are going to live up there as soon as we build a place to live. I am thinking a barn first, with room for people that could later become an office, so we'd have somewhere to live while we build the house...so a dog up there would be a good thing. I adored the Schipperkye, but I was 10 years old then, and I am not, now, and I am afraid they would be too hyper...and my father told me that Jetty (the Schip) was a real barker...I don't remember that, but would a kid, notice, such a thing?) I don't think so.
To complicate things...I live with a cat, who has never been around dogs, and he is leery of them...almost every time I see the picture of one that I like, it mentions that it does not like cats. I understand that to mean, that it eats cats, when it gets a chance...Horsie would run from a dog, he doesn't know that, if you stand your ground with some dogs, and scratch them, they will back off.
Any suggestions? Not to be difficult, but I do not like Dobermans or Rotties...not to say they are not good dogs, just a personal thing. I used to work at a Vet's office, and we saw lots of Dobies....and...