I like what you're doing with the house, architecturally. The decks and overhangs are vast improvement. They give the house much more character.

Color choices are very subjective, but I prefer the red over the pewter. That said, I don't care for the red in just the one area. I like to see complimentary colors used as an accent - for example, on the window trim, door trim, corner boards and fascia. That's traditional, maybe a little boring, but it works for me.

I don't think factory-color siding is worth the extra money, which is considerable, and you still have to caulk and touch-up the cuts and joints. Everybody makes fiber cement siding now, and the basic pre-primed stuff is really cheap. If you use good quality paint, it'll last for decades. If you want interest, vary the lap and color. For example, space the siding seven inches on the first floor, then five inches on the second floor and use a slightly different hue of paint.

Hope this helps.

John

Thanks Mag77. I agree with your comment about having something else for the color to relate to. Unfortunately we already purchased the windows with a factory painted white trim.

Also a good point about the cuts needing field painting-- I guess I was falling for the 15 year factory finish guarantee.

The other option we are looking into is creating a "screen" which will have very heavy shadow lines and can incorporate the outdoor shower enclosure. This would require field painting which we were thinking could relate to the standing seam metal roof. The screen idea is more costly than dutchlap but cheaper than stone veneer. The plan would be to use Azek (PVC) vertical and horizontal boards with fibercement behind it on the lower level only.

Any more words of sage words of wisdom regarding this screen concept? I mocked up a pretty bad Sketchup drawing to illustrate the idea.

Zeitgast: >

Flattery will get you more advice than you can stand. :-)

The shower screen looks like an afterthought added to hide AC units. Throw a few more dollars at it. Make the corner column as bold as the columns supporting the adjacent porch and let it rise up to the deck above. In other words, tie the shower into the house.

That was the original plan but there was a problem with the septic system that dictated where we needed to dig the sono tubes.

Good thought though thx