Oh Jo Ann, I'm so happy to help somebody in this process! I have so leaned on the opinions and advice of this forum, that I am so glad that I can return the favor for somebody else. So, anytime, please ask away!
It's funny bc we thought through all the things you mentioned, and we narrowed it down to maple, caramel, and mahogany. I've never seen any of these colors covering an entire house; so, it was definitely a leap of faith, and staring at the Nichiha catalog and samples and photos on GW, that we went on. We were also going for that fresh shingle look and trying to figure out which most closely mimics it. When we looked at real cedar, we decided that the kind we liked had more of a blonde-like undertone, rather than red; so, we decided on Maple. We love it. It is rich looking and beautiful, and the variations in the stain make it look realistic. Even the maple, IMHO, reads darker than I thought it would. People are always asking us about the siding. Not sure if you looked at jaymielo's posts of her home, but she has a beautiful home done in mahogany. For us, it was more about the undertones. Mahogany has a reddish feel to it, whereas maple is more honey toned. They are both beautiful. Anyway, our trim is white. Sorry, I don't actually know the name. It is an LP smartside, and I think it's painted to match the Andersen windows. We are going with Wayne Dalton 9400 garage doors in the Charleston style with Stockton windows and the black handles. They are supposed to look like white carriage garage doors. Anyway, here are some pics. This one I took this morning (the door transoms are not quite right yet):

The rest I took in the evening. Here is a picture in progress:

And here is that close up of the mitered corners:

gobruno - thanks so much for the pictures and description. I think that will help DH. I like the yellow undertones, because it does look more like the new cedar. But, the red would work well because we have such red dirt that even when things are planted & grow back, there is always the sense of the color of the dirt.

Back in February, we went to the lot & propped both samples against the trees. We both had the gut reaction that our choice should be mahogany. I would say that we should go with our gut, but a small sample under the tree isn't the same as a whole house. Like you, we've never been able to see it "in the flesh" so to speak. Well, we have until Monday to make up our minds. There's always the coin toss, right? LOL!

WRT to the garage doors, we're doing Clopay Grand Harbour, but I'm a bit anxious about making them all white. We have a double door & one single door, so that might feel like a whole lotta white. The garage is a sideloader, but now is on the side of the house where it is more visible coming up the road from the entrance to the neighborhood. It wasn't supposed to be that way, but we had to mirror the house just because it fit the contours of the lot better that way.

Thanks, again, for the help. Always looking for more pix when you get a chance.

Jo Ann

i'm going to barge in here and vote for maple. jmo, though!

gobruno: it's looking BEAUTIFUL! i can't wait to see the finish!

Well, I sent DH the link to jaymielo's blog & when I came home from work, he informed me that he had decided on mahogany. We'll see what color it will be once he's had a good night's sleep. Hahaha!

Thanks for the vote for maple, Kate. I would be happy with that. Look at it this way: one of us will have weathered gray, one of us will have maple & one of us will (perhaps?) have mahogany. LOL!

Unfortunately, what I won't have is a red front door. Painting it is not going to work with the style we have chosen & I just didn't want to fight that battle. Kate, remember when you asked about any ethnic things that people did with their house? My plan was to go all WASPy & do a red front door like most Anglican churches have. (Its a symbol of welcome & sanctuary which can apply to a house, as well.) I kinda thought that was a goofy thing to cite as an ethnic tradition. (shrug)

gobruno - it is looking so lovely. We're going to have a bump out on the lefthand side, as well, which will be all white trim rather than the shakes.

Kate - the trim on some of your dormers was an inspiration to do our shed dormer with the face all white trim rather than trying to put shingles on the outer edges.

I really appreciate the help & encouragement both of you have given me. Hope I can pay it forward in a few month for the next person doing stained Nichiha.

gobruno- your house looks beautiful! Looks like you are getting close to finishing-- can't wait to see more pictures.

drjoann-It doesn't seem like you go wrong whichever you choose! I think the Nichiha people should be paying you, gobruno and katesourous for all the advertising and beautiful pictures of their products! LOL
Funny comment about the door- our old house had red but the new therma-tru will be mahogany so no painting for us either. I really love how welcoming a red door seems-- oh well!

Thanks for the compliments! We are very excited about the house, and can't wait until we are finally living in it instead of always working on it. Funny you should mention the red door. We are actually painting the front door red. The color on the picture is just the unpainted base color. We like red front doors. It's also supposed to be good feng shui. Jo Ann, I think mahogany will look great. You're right, it'll be fun to see our three houses with different colors. Crescent50, your house looks great too. Can't wait to see everybody's finished pictures. Good luck everybody!

drjoann: well, i think the mahogany will look lovely as well. while i definitely have my preferences there really is no wrong or right ...taste is individual and i truly never met a color i didn't like! the product is beautiful so there really can be no better outcome.

and funny you should mention the advertising, crescent: i joined nichiha's facebook fan page thinking i would send them some pics but i can't figure it out. the images they have there really don't come close to what we all have going on here. i think they'd LOVE to see. ...and if they love it enough maybe they'll throw in some extra product for the pool house i'm dreaming of? yes, well, it's a dream for now! i can't wait to see ALL of our builds completed! best of luck.

Well, the mahogany sample was up on the mantel when I got home on Friday, stayed there all weekend & this morning DH sent the builder a note to say that it was go for mahogany.

I'm glad he went with what had been our pick when we were at the lot. I'm very analytical, but sometimes you just have to go with your gut. Now that we are getting pictures with the trees in full leaf, I'm even happier with the choice.

Thanks for the encouragement - Jo Ann