Thanks for the responses! Mightyanvil, I know what you're saying about asking our architect, and I will definitely do that, but I have to say that I've realized over the past 8 months working with him that he and I don't always have the same taste, especially on the details...maybe it's my east coast aesthetic vs. his west coast aesthetic. My "eye" still tells me that clapboard should be smooth like the New England farmhouses I remember growing up around, but maybe it's different for Prairie/Craftsman style? Also, he has not specified every single detail (such as colors). He's pretty much just spec'd materials and left individual color choices to us. Yes, I do have elevations, but since our architect is "old school" they are hand drawn and are not on my computer. Maybe I can reduce and scan them. I'll see about that. Ronnatilie, your house looks great. Thanks so much for the photo, which helps a lot!! Our house is similar in style with hip roofs and a mix of exterior siding. Our windows are white (we went with Andersen wood and vinyl clad so the exterior of the window, unfortunately, can't be painted), and I think this window color choice limits us in exterior siding colors. I don't care for the look of brownish earth tone colors in siding, up against a white window, so I'm thinking that we're going to stick to a dark charcoal grey on the stucco, some sort of lighter grey on the Hardiplank, and a stone with greys and other colors in it. I'd love to find a good photo of that combination or similar, but I'm having a hard time finding one. Thanks again for the help. Please keep it coming! Susan

Hardie is probably the best manufacturer of fiber-cement siding products (I think they bought most of their competitors so there aren't many alternatives but the product does have limitations. Before committing to fiber-cement, you may wish to consider other composites such as Boral's fly ash-polymer siding https://truexterior.com/ or vinyl plank siding by Everlast https://www.everlastsiding.com/ I just finished a home on which we installed Everlast vinyl plank siding. It was easy to work with, it looks fantastic and it never needs to be painted. I had to convince the architect who designed it with Hardie to endorse the switch. Now he's using the Everlast product in many applications where he formerly would have used fiber-cement. Best wishes for a successful project.

@ptreckel - this is exactly why we ended up with a painted door rather than a solid wood door like we originally thought we wanted. This way, when we get the itch, we can change the door color! And YES, I would definitely consider shutters in the future! Thank you! @Flo Mangan and @kodiac23 - really appreciated your input and help throughout this process. Thank you so much!

Been in the same thought process. We have decided on the Royal Celect. Hardie in the past years has had some not great reviews. Our contractor guided us toward Celect. We have seen it in person and it looks quite nice. Wish I could give you more input. Let us know what you choose !