Getting back in to flying light aircraft is excellent, and will always be a worthy refresher to the "hands and feet" side of your flying skills. Toward that end, a taildragger will be an even better choice than a tricycle aircraft.
As for choice of type, your available spare time, and how you value that time, and aspirations of your calendar to fly, play a large role in what aircraft you choose. If you value your time highly by the hour, or have little spare time, go and buy an airworthy aircraft in decent mechanical condition. If you really want a good looking aircraft with good interior, then spend the extra to buy that too. If you are patient, and have a little spare time, or want to stretch a budget, you can buy less beauty, and work away on that, knowing that the base aircraft is fit and flyable all the way along.
If you have lots of spare time, value it low, and have generous calendar expectations, consider a build or rebuild project. Do not consider a build or rebuild project as a means to economy in your flying, it is not, if your time has significant value to you. Also, if you are short of facilities, a "project' can be more difficult and costly to achieve.
I have known many pilots who wanted to fly without the cost of purchasing a flying aircraft, perhaps of a certified type. They spent years getting it flying, and in a number of cases I can recall, had a "lack of flying skills" type accident, shortly after they did fly, as they had been building/resorting for years, and not flying at all.
I project plane takes a lot of "getting around to" and large blocks of time, not everyone has those. I myself have a restoration project going, which is going beautifully. But, it's taken a year longer than I planned, and is still months away from flying. Happily, I fly each of my other two planes regularly in the mean time, so skills and the desire to fly are not being overlooked in the mean time.
Remind yourself that the break between "certified" aircraft, and "non-certified" is there for a reason. The non-certified aircraft have not demonstrated compliance with the design requirements for handling and performance which certified aircraft have. It does not mean they are the lesser for it, just those factors are unproven. As a pilot of larger aircraft, you might make assumptions about characteristics which you cannot assume are present in non certified types - get to know the characteristics of a non certified type, to be sure they are right for you, before you say yes to it.
If you buy an older "common" certified type, assure yourself of the projected maintenance costs, some of the legacy aircraft, though maintainable with common historic skills, are burdened by less available parts sources, and additional maintenance requirements for "aging aircraft" type concerns. With more specific type questions here, more specific information will be presented.
Gook luck, ask lots of questions....