[BoondogUK]

I'm also a dev, well more a UX consultant these days...

A solid templating cms like wordpress or drupal will get you a long way however I am not a fan of Joomla as it has to be patched so often because of security issues.

I'm not pitching for the work as I dont have the time, but would recommend before getting any design done, you understand what it is that the user of your site wants from you, rather than the other way round. If you fancy some reading, look up User Centered Design (UCD), it will save you a lot of hassle, and allow you to maximise your visitor conversions.

Good luck with what ever you go for, but make sure you know what your users want before you start!