Our lumberyard sells the Sierra Primed Shake Deep Groove in 20 board bundles at $168.30 per bundle, which breaks down to approx $8.40 per 8' board. We did price out the pre-finished in Maple too...$259.25 per bundle or approx $12.96 per board. Those prices are with a 15% discount that they very kindly offered since we're OBing. :o)

Thanks so much NoSoccermom -- your interest in my project is soooo helpful. By chance, just today, my neighbor stopped by who is an engineer (the worst) but worked as a professional painter and general contractor as he worked his way thru college. I've been dying to call him about all my projects but today worked out perfectly. He's finishing his basement and asked my ideas about that and I had a chance to walk him thru the almost finished Dining Room (he was impressed) and then we talked about the crazy Living Room with paneling/shake/beams/etc. He loved all your ideas about keeping the shake. He offered to help me remove the paneling and fix the walls OR apply NEW drywall if that is what I want. Cleverly ... he mentioned ... if you really want to accent the shake like it was "intentional" minimize or remove the other materials. Lastly .... he advised on my ceiling which he's done before. After a lengthy discussion ... I have to basically stipple these tiles (brush-fill all the holes and groves) then roll with a nappy roller. I can do that. I can recruit my Hubby to help. In return, I've offered to help finish his basement when it comes to painting as I meet his level of excellence. LOL. I'm in good shape for now. I'll post pictures of the entire room before / during / and after. Also, I feel obliged to send you flowers or something in appreciation because you've really changed and IMPROVED what I was going to do. Thanks soooo much. And thanks to GW Home Decorators. You folks rock! :)

Darn, I don't. I don't know how well it has held up except for the trim paint. It has started flaking off on some of the window trim, but it's amazing how well it has held up on the molded masonry block exposed foundation which made it look nicer. They got some powerful, thick white latex paint that had an odor of ammonia about it, and I believe they only applied one coat. IIRC, they scraped it pretty well (trim not masonry) which helped on the trim. The trim held up better actually, although there is flaking on some of it now. The house paint never flaked, just weathered down. As to the house paint, I got it at a True Value (hope I remember right about that as I had to pick it out, don't think it was their store brand, one of the big name brands, suitable to cover shingles in one coat. It's flaked, no weathered, no flaking ever of that, bonded well, off for years now, so I don't know if I could say that held up so well or not, but then brown over green with one coat you can't expect a whole lot there, and there was no power washing back then that I knew about anyway. Maybe the kids just picked out the white paint for me, I paid. Their father was supervising. In any case, I would choose a different house paint as this gave it a thicker, smoother, piled on look which detracts from the natural beauty of shingles, the wood texture. Maybe any paint will do that. It is going to be a difficult choice, and it probably doesn't pay to cut corners on exterior paint. Sorry I couldn't be more help about that. They may not even carry or manfacture those two particular paints any more.

Chris your inspiration house has a large proportion of the natural cedar color to the blue and a lot of what we can see on that house in the photo is in shadow which makes a big difference. You're trying to choose a color for your house without a clean background - the yellow is a player in making colors look different. I took a picture of 2 colors from one of my paint decks for you - put them on a table on our porch that is similar in color to your cedar but when I compare the picture to the paint deck it's horribly off so I hesitate to post it for you. I may email it but just know that it's not representational at all. I'm looking at Benjamin Moore Everard Blue CW-575 and Wetherburn's Blue CW-580. these are from their Williamsburg collection, grayed blues with green in them. Even on the B/M website the colors are off on my computer. I'm not certain these are the *right* colors for your house but it's a slightly different direction that brings your setting into the mix and a place to start. Hale Navy is part of the Historical Color collection from B/M - that collection is a good place to be as well. The colors are dirtier which is good - what you don't want is a bright, clear color on your house. There are different ways to approach trim and house colors - they can be high contrast with crisp definition or lower contrast and more subtle transition. Neither one is better, they are just different looks but your trim will still be differentiated from the house body with less contrast. Are you planning to paint your eves and rake boards like the inspiration house?