Hello all, I have been lurking here for a while as DH and I work on a house plan. People here are so insightful that I thought instead of going back and forth with DH and designer, I'd float my question here.

We have the bones of our house --- it is a farmhouse with a large metal roof on the front porch. It will be set on 2 acres in NC, surrounded by some horse country (i.e. fences, etc). For inspiration, my favorites are Russell Versaci (Simple Farmhouse) http://www.russellversaci.com/

and another favorite house is GW's own Ponydoc. I think his house is beautiful. I have saved his pics to my favorites folder!

Our house will slope gently down to the left --- so the walkout will be to the side. I think this can work well as so many Pennsylvania farmhouses have these slopes and they have stone retaining walls, revealing something like a root cellar. In any case, the entire foundation of the house will be stone. I think we can put a pretty stone retaining wall with a postlight to make it a feature. The question we are struggling with about the house (for the moment): should the center portion (the main body) of the house be stone - or siding? The gables, garage, etc. will be a wide hardiplank --- I love Williamsburg colors, so they will be a tannish color with a cream trim. I also love the PA fieldstone homes that have grown over the years, in different materials. Perhaps stone in the center section can help us get a bit closer to a "new old house." Or, would this house look better with siding, and just the stone foundation? My designer believes it is critical for the main body to be stone. I think he might be right, but DH isn't sure. If stone, I think the natural choice would be a Pennsylvania tan fieldstone. DH prefers stacked stone, but we both agree that is too much for the entire main body. If we are going to use stacked stone, it would be around the foundation only. The stone is obviously going to be more expensive, so if it is not "critical," we will probably go with siding --- it is probably about a $20,000 difference. However, the stone would be lower maintenance (I believe), and if "critical," we will go with stone. One side question I have --- I have never seen one of these farmhouses in stone with a porch (mine is the shed roof kind --- don't know what this is called, but it runs the length of the main body of the house). Is that because it is hard to tie the porch roof (metal) into the stone well -- or just because it isn't the right combo architecturally? I have only seen one house the way we are planning. Here is the one I have seen (Middleburg, VA):

I am going to attach several pics --- unfortunately, I cannot get the hand drawing any darker--- I have tried 50 times, so I am hoping it looks better when I actually post.

This is a rendering of the front of the house --- it is purposefully not complete --- it is the rendering the designer did to hand off to a CAD guy that is the basics of the house --- we had the CAD guy then give us many versions to try to figure out dormers, shutters, stone, siding, etc. This is the light one --- sorry....

This next one (option 1) is with stone in the main body, siding on the rest.

I am worried I am going to hit post and they will really not come through (for some reason options 1& 2 seem to be dark enough, just not the hand drawing). I hope I haven't just wasted everyones time!

One other possibility I have thought of, but it might be a disaster, is a combo of stone (to let DH get some stacked stone in). This house is in Highlands, NC and it has a combo (don't have any idea what it is though).

http://www.exurbiasothebysrealty.com/26cherrytree/image-1.jpg

TIA if anybody has an opinion about this stone or siding! Again, if the pics come through too light, I apologize for my ineptitude with this! I'm going to keep trying to fix the hand drawing....But please, chime in with option 1 or 2 if you have an opinion and would like to share! Thanks so much for reading this very long post!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1446709}}