sallen,

I Love the house you are building. My neighbor built this exact same house. Although it is not the largest or the most expensive, it is my favorite house in our neighborhood.

It is the kind of house that you can't stop looking at. I love it. He did it with vinyl siding and it looks exactly like the picture in the link you posted except they had their builder build a side, attached garage.

My dh is playing golf with this neighbor as we speak and when they get back I will ask him permission to take a picture of his house for you. If he says it is OK, I will post it for you later today if I can.

I have stone/board & batten/shingle on mine so I don't think my photos would help. Have you seen the huge home front threads over on Decorating? Lots of pictures over there lately. 150 posts on the first one and over 80 on the second one so far. Some new homes, some older. Just really fun to view!

Front of your Home Part 1

Front of your Home part 2

Regarding no response to vinyl, imo, dont. With that awesome house you are planning, go with fiber cement as it is close to resembling real wood, which would be my choice. I would go with cedar clapborad and real wood trim, but im a glutton for punishment as the maintenance to keep it decent would be often and i aint gettin' any younger. Both hardie and certainteed have trim package options.

red_lover, I have my fingers crossed! I have searched everywhere for information on this house. Even though it is listed as a "top seller" the only information I have found is on the one website I linked. Boy, has that been a lesson learned! I have made several changes on the interior to meet our needs. However, I have had night mares about the exterior! Seeing a picture of the home in vinyl siding would be incredible! As I mentioned earlier, if buget was not an issue the decision would be easier. Also, since vinyl siding is used in our community I am not sure if investing in a more expensive product and one that requires additional upkeep would be a good investment for a home we may want to sell when we retired in 10 or so years.

Ours is simple, but here it is.

This was before it was painted

{{gwi:1412335}}

Brutuses,
I love the trim. It looks great!

sallen2008,

That is a beautiful house. Our trim is very simple, but we did do quite a bit of it on our house, especially around the windows. Here are a few pictures of things "in progress".

sallen2008 ~ when you do the price comparisons, don't forget to allow for insurance and future upkeep.

Many insurance companies give a considerable discount for use of cementious sidings, which continues for the life of the house. i.e. if your insurance discounts $1500 a year for Hardie-type, then you should realize that in ten years you have saved $15K, which should be considered when you consider the original difference in cost.

And upkeep requires both materials and labor, and as time passes, both will increase in cost. A 50-year may not worry too much about painting/staining DIY upkeep, but paying for someone else's labor does become something to consider once one passes 60, and the future cost of maintainance should be added into the original expense for purposes of a more realistic price comparison.

brutuses, love, love, love, your trim AND your exterior color. Is that hardie? What color (and brand of paint) did you use on the exterior. If that is hardie is the trim expensive? meldy_nva, great point about considering now and future in such decisions...I will have more questions to ask when I go on Thursday to discuss exterior....poor salesman....jaymielo, love your house and especially love how your trim enhances the beauty of your home! Thanks!

Thanks for the compliments. The exterior paint is BM Sandy Hook Gray HC-108. The siding is Hardie, but the trim is not. The trim is a combination of MDF, plain pine and then the fancy dentile moldings are a molded plastic product. It's 3 or 4 different pieces that DH put together to get the look he wanted.

Sallen,

I had to learn to post images so, hope this helps. The front elevation has 3 arches on the front porch, but they aren't installed yet so, it doesn't look quite as good as the final product. Other details, like the address stone are still missing. Note the brickwork matches the Fypon over the window on the right. We elected not to add shutters since we felt they hide the expensive brickwork and wasps tend to nest behind them. The rear porch has "receiver" boards against the wall so that a future screened-in porch can be added without disturbing the vinyl siding. My previous house had dark brown windows and trim and the aluminum cladding got chalky over time in direct sun and didn't look attractive. I later broke a window and tried to get the sash replaced and they had a 4-6 week lead time. I was told white is usually in stock and ready to ship because it is more common (15 years ago. Also, there are fewer color options for garage doors and the white windows and trim match the garage door.

gpep, thanks for the pic....beautiful detail on your new home!

sallen2008,

Thanks. We expect to move-in in the next few weeks and couldn't be more delighted with our builder.

sallen,

Sorry for the confusion. Apparently, I have 2 accounts on gardenweb. I setup the zeke__z acount awhile back and forgot about it. Anyway, I'm both gpep and zeke__z.

Regards,

Jerry

jaymielo,

What kind of siding is that? Is it site finished?

jodied, The siding is Nichiha Sierra Premium Shakes, prefinished with Mahogany stain. There are quite a few posts here that will offer more information. Our trim is painted now, it wasn't above, and it really mellowed out the color of the siding. We are very happy with the product and the result. Here are some links with more info...

Sneak preview. Nichiha siding

Macadamia Nichiha Shake Photos

If you decide to use fiber-cement siding be sure the flashing used behind the end joints is approved for use in contact with cement and concrete. Unprotected sheet aluminum would not be a good choice.

Here is a link that might be useful: flashing for fiber-cement siding

Thanks for the details....the exterior has been the biggest challenge yet! We decided to mull the windows with the transoms and then install them individually (side by side). I hope that this will give the wide trim look that I think is so important to this house....lesson learned, order blueprints next time instead of having the house drawn locally....the window/trim issue would have been clearer!

gpep: what material did you use for your ceiling on the porch? We are thinking of using the vinyl material there.