Cedar is a better exterior species, but fir siding will hold up well with proper installation/sealing/ maintenance.

Concerning stucco, you might want to look into the acrylic top coat vs traditional as the acrylic remains flexible expanding/contracting with temperature changes as well as house settling issues = less cracking.

Isn't there a general guideline that you go with lighter, less substantial materials as you go higher?

stone The stucco with brick around the windows sounds nice, but I'm having trouble imagining vertical wood siding below stucco. In general. I dislike houses where the front is a different material. Unless the design somehow justifies it, I associate it with tract housing - "Brick front! Garden tub!" But maybe I just can't visualize what you are describing.

By heavy troweled stucco I assume you mean real cement stucco. Be sure it is applied over two layers of underlayment (double asphalt saturated building felts or double plastic housewrap) or you will get a nasty surprise later.

The typical French building material has historically been cement based and wood siding is rare. I think I have some photos of medieval period wood siding from northern France and I will try to find them for you.

Have you considered synthetic stucco? There is nothing wrong with it if it is installed correctly. I would use red cedar shingles rather than vertical board siding for a cottage but I haven't seen your design.

Fir doesn't have the natural rot resistance of western red cedar so it would probably require more maintenance in your climate.

Cedar is high maintenance if it is stained. It's a waste of good wood if it is painted.

PLEASE don't build a false-front house. If you can't do all one material on all sides, at least incorporate some of the better material all around.

We're 30 miles north of Chicago. Our stucco and brick house is seven years old -- no cracks.

Synthetic stucco is not a good seller in this area. Mightyanvil is right that it can be a good building material, but it has garnered a bad reputation due to too many poorly built homes. A neighbor (Realtor) bought her synthetic stucco house for a song -- tore off the exterior and applied genuine stucco before putting it on the market.

Traditional cementious based scratch coat/brown coat/acrylic top coat, (three coat system), will hold up better than the traditional three coat system that uses a standard top coat. A reliable stucco job is highly dependent on the mix and application, but most important is the lath under it. The use and proper install of a double ply underlayment as well as proper flashing techniques/drainage plane is what makes a succesful moisture free wall cavaty.

Yeah, those houses with brick fronts and vinyl sides around here bug me, too. But what do I know.

Exquisite brick front houses with clapboard sides and rear are seen on original colonial houses in the Carolinas. The trick is to detail them properly which seems to be a lost art. Putting brick on the lower part of a wall and setting horizontal siding back against the studs above it looks like you didn't care enough to maintain the appearance that the house is really made out of brick instead of a veneer over a wood frame. For a more traditional appearance it is better to bring the siding out flush with the brick or make the change at an overhang at the second floor line. Traditionallly material changes usually took advantage of overhangs or flares to minimize the obvious water penetration problems created by exposed ledges.

First of all I really appreciate all the feedback. I don't want to use the synthetic stucco because I can't achieve the look that I want with it, which is the heavy trowel. Because we are not using cinder block I have been hesitant to use it all the way around the house. Chisue, do you and your realtors house have a cinderblock base or wood? From what I understand putting it on a wood base is taking much more of a chance of it cracking because of the expansion and contraction. Do all of you who sound certainly more knowledgeable than I think if I use the 2 layers of underlayment along with all the proper precautions with the lath as well as the proper flashing and drainage that the stucco would be sound and probably not crack henceforth? I would love to use the stucco all the way around but I figured if I just did the front, if it cracked in the future the expense to repair wouldn't be as considerable. As far as the other replies concerning the front matching the sides, I agree with all of you until the price factor and the make or break on whether I can afford the house or not comes into play. I'd rather get my house with it not matching the front than not get it at all! But I HAVE definitely changed my mind on putting the vertical siding on the bottom. Your right about that, either all siding on the sides and back or all stucco. Mucho thanks for the feedback :)

Most cracks occur at openings at the upper corners and around corners due to settling as well as the openings being a weak spot in the structure with flexing. Another cause of cracking is not allowing the scratch/brown coats to set and cure for a minimum 30 days before the top coat is applied. During this 30 day period, the scratch coat/brown coat will crack which is normal up to a point where the cracking generally ceases. By waiting for this before applying the top coat, the cracking wont follow through the top coat. Hairline cracking is typical and should be expected on traditional 3-coat stucco, but the cracking is barely visible, you really have to look hard to spot it. Anything more should be addressed. Ask stucco contractors in your area if they are familiar with the acrylic top coat. Traditional top coating has been around for a long time with success, the acrylic is an improvement that lessens cracking because it remains flexible with teperature changes and during settling, around openings,etc. It's almost like having a rubber membrane on your walls topically. Re-inforcement around the opening corners during the lath install wih pieces of rib lath lessen the chance of cracks in those areas.

Concerning underlayments double ply vs single, single ply underlayments have been used a long while as well, felt paper in the older applications, and have been relatively reliable. In some areas, because the cementious based scratch coat adheres to the underlayment, moisture builds up behind the underlayment and will eventually damage areas of the wall cavaty. The three coats are not what keeps the wall system dry, but rather the lath/flashings/drainage plane behind. When the scratch coat adheres to the first ply and has absorbed moisture from rains, the wet scratch coat sitting on the underlayment causes condensing which has a tendency to build on the back side of the underlayment. With a single ply, the moisture then contacts the wall structure behind. With double ply underlayments, the moisture that builds up behind the first is caught by the second ply and runs down and out by way of the weep screed at the base of the wall structure. I've witnessed this on remodels here in the mojave desert where it's typically a dry climate/low humidity. Most failures with single ply occur in high humidity/wetter regions.

Gardengirl, the Country French look isn't necessarily achieved by the 'sticks and stones' of the house~it can be accomplished with exterior decorative features.

Board and batten shutters, with the top cut on a radius(curved).

Fancy wrought iron on bottom of long(sort of balcony style), almost ground-length windows. You would need this in the front only.

French doors instead of a window.

A front door with a French look, something with wrought iron.

I've gotten a lot of my inspiration from Jack Arnold Homes. Here's the site:

http://www.jackarnold.com/default.asp

Gardengirl, i'm bumping this up cause you may not have read some of the posts. Looking at the JA homes might give you some great ideas while not breaking the bank. bump..........

Thanks Patty cakes! I did look at the Jack Arnold homes and they are so lovely. I do have an inspiration house thats in a suburb close to mine, It is all stucco (the real stuff) hers it on cinder block though all over the house. Unfortunately I have to use wood sheathing and I'm just so unsure of the reliability of wood as a substructure under that. But I just love the look. I'm doing some research into exactly what needs to be done to make sure the job has integrity so I know what I'm talking about when I talk to the different subs (and I'll know if they know what they are talking about!) If I can feel comfortable with them doing a good job I will probably just do the stucco all the way around. It is so beautiful.
Thanks for the bump!

Gardengirl, I'm not following your concern with what the wall system is constructed of with a stucco application. A properly lathed wall,(underlayment, flashings, lath wire, drainage plane),is what keeps moisture from penetrating the wall regardless of it being block, wood, adobe, straw bale, or whtever. A block wall isn't going to keep moisture from reaching the inside of a home on an improperly lathed stucco exterior. Your concern should you decide to go with stucco is to find a reputable stucco/lath contractor who knows what they are doing in order to give you a trouble free exterior.

Strike the adobe, but i think you get what's being said here.

Another scenario, I'm sure in your area you are going with a basement. After they pour the basement walls or lay the block, will they then fill up against the foundation untreated? No, they will install a waterproof membrane/drainage plane with a drain system at the base to carry moisture/water out and away from the foundation. A stucco wall relates to that system, the principle is the same. The lath/underlayments/flashings keep the moisture running down and out through the weep screed at the base. It's what keeps the materials behind dry as long as it is installed correctly.

Sierraeast, its the contractors that I've talked to that have made me concerned. I just feel like they are telling me that with the changing climate in the Midwest it could cause expansion and contraction of the wood underlayment and be more likely to then cause cracking of the stucco. Which the cracking in turn could cause moisture problems. At least if I'm getting this right. You seem to have a great deal of knowledge concerning this. If the stucco job is done correctly, do you feel it should hold up well? How do you think the stucco will hold up with snow, in particular with this scenario? Thanks so much for your feedback.

Hi Gardengirl, Here in the mojave desert, traditional 3 coat stucco is very common on most all homes here. Where we are building in the sierra nevadas,(at 4500'), it is now being used with the use of the acrylic top coat i have been mentioning to you. The acrylic is what deals with the expansion/contraction caused by temperature differences, wet/cold freezing in the winter, dry hot with varying humitidy levels, then cooling way down at night in the summer. A traditional top coat when exposed to wet winter freezing has a tendency to crack because of it's rigidity not being flexible like the acrylic. The mojave has some wet winter and freezing days as well, but the days of freezing temps are typically short unlike the sierras where the exteriors are exposed to freezing temps greater lengths of time. I cant speak for the wood substrate expanding/contracting unless it is getting moisture, that's why the underlayment install as well as flashings/drainage planes are so critical in order to keep it dry. There is movement due to settling in homes most anywhere. Up in the sierras, some older late 1800's homes and town buildings were the old cementious based hard coat with the top coat being paint. These buildings have cracks, but are in surprisingly good shape for their age. Paint is a flexible coating as well, that's why the acrylic is being used as it has even greater flexibility. I would ask your contractor to look into the acrylic top coat as a traditional top coat wont hold up in the midwest winters and as you stated, will cause severe cracking that can cause the underlayment to fail and lead to moisture damage if the cracks aren't repeatedly attended to. The acrlyic can be textured in any pattern the same as traditional. You can have a heavy mediteranean that you are looking for, old world, knock downs, or smooth with or without sand finishing. Many texture choices are available if the installer has that experience, which most stucco crews have these days. We have an old world finish on our build with a sand mixed in the acrylic. If your contractor isn't familiar with acrylic, i can possibly get some info for you from our stucco contractor about the products and possible availibility in your area. The difference between the acrylic and traditional concerning the install,is that both are troweld on, but with acrylic, a brush and roller technique is used as well as it is almost paint like and comes in 5 gallon buckets rather than the powdered mix of traditional mixed with water and typically put on with a sponge trowel and textured by way of a hard trowel.

Sierra, I've tried for about 45 minutes to attached a copy of the "deep relief" texture that I want. It has a very sandy rough look to it. I don't think I will be able to get that effect with the acrylic. It seems to give it a much smoother finish. I haven't seen it attempted anywhere, only with the real concrete. The acrylic is used very often around here but usually with a smooth albeit beautiful affect. Can you picture the deep relief look that I'm talking about. Maybe you could Google "deep relief" if your not able to picture what I'm describing, maybe you've seen it already though. Do you think I could achieve that "real rough sandy concrete" look with acrylic being used in it?

Hi Gardengirl, I will talk to our stucco guy or his supplier and try to get some samples of acrylic texturing. The samples that he showed us for our build i dont believe included any heavy texturing, even when sand was used. I found this website that has both cementious texture samples as well as a few acrylic. I'll run this by our stucco guy and get his take on a heavier acrylic texture method to see if it is possible. In any event, you are going to want a finisher that is diversified enough to be able to adapt to a new texture type to get what you want. Most experienced finishers can play around a little until they get it where you want it, just be sure they are familiar with acrylic if you go that route in the first place.

Here is a link that might be useful: texture samples

On the website i gave you , i clicked on this and the way im reading it, the acrylics can be heavy textured, they have just used names of texturing from cementious textures of the past. Is this how you are reading this as well? You might contact this outfit and get more info and if there are suppliers in your area.

Here is a link that might be useful: acrylic info

I have made many trips to France and photographed many French country buildings. I have never seen a strongly textured stucco finish unless you think the finish in the photo is textured. The roughness you might associate with French country buildings is probably from the stone work that is so much more common than stucco in the older buildings.