Personally, I think chimneys should be brick or in some instances stone. So I'm thinking brick but I'm also thinking I shouldn't trust my design sense, as I nervously wait for my windows to be installed and wonder if I made a mistake. I have seen siding on chimneys - would that be better, assuming I could really do that since the builder just sent me some choices of brick and stone.

Anyways, sorry so long for a simple question - does anybody have an opinion on my chimney?

Still_waters - good heavens what is a POA (is that like a PITA) that it can prohibit brick? Doesn't really matter, pretty sure I don't have one of those around here, I don't thnk I'm really building in a neighbourhood - rural, very rural. I'm fairly certain chimneys around me would be brick.

Nini804 - I think this is where the gap between me and my modest little house and the rest of GW becomes obvious - there won't be anything on my foundation. In my house's defense, there will be a verandah across the front and around one corner. But I guess it will be visible in front of the garage, just a little bit, I hope. I'll plant flowers.

To help you choose what material to simulate, we would need to see the design of the house with an indication of the materials and colors. Obviously, red brick is the most common traditional chimney material. Siding is the material of choice of builder/developers for low budget apartments and condominiums; it would look out of place on a single-family home IMHO. If you want to save money use synthetic stucco on cement board. Stone would usually be appropriate for a Craftsman or Shingle Style house.

What gives these simulated chimney enclosures away visually is the absence of roof flashing since water that enters the enclosure must drain out onto the roof surface - sort of the reverse of a real chimney.

The only one I've done encloses a very large wood-burning fireplace vent and cap (shown below) on a Shingle Style house. It appears to be sitting on the roof instead of penetrating it but, fortunately, the base of it is not easy to see from the ground.

Renovator8 - that's a very nice house and a very nice chimney. Yes, it is a 1" thick veneer of something I had to choose. I get what you mean about sitting on the roof - ours too won't be obvious from the ground - I hope. I did go traditional - reddish brick.

Thank you very much for sharing your opinions and helping me with this decision - I'm sure I'll be back.

And yes, they can sometimes be PITA too. They want to monitor the size of trees that can be taken down in your yard...a certain diameter, but they have changed that over the years too. (The size got bigger.) Now they allow log cabins when at one time they weren't permitted. Since cable TV doesn't run out there, they started to allow satellite dishes.

I won't go into all their rules.

And, wow! I had no idea.

Well, you really do learn something new every day.