Thank you for your responses. Our county requires permitting for septic systems. My understanding is that our builder was concerned about snow build up possibly blocking the vents if they were directed straight up (we live in a snowy area during winter). Last week we had roofers here dealing with another issue who commented that the septic smell was pretty bad, in fact, they thought our septic tank/system was backed up. We received an occupancy permit in October, so we are assuming the septic design was approved. The pipe exits the exterior wall about 4-6" below the soffit. It does not turn up at all, just comes straight out 6-8". The plumber who installed has been involved. He recently installed some sort of diaphragm in the crall space, which has not helped. We do not think the plumber expected to come back and do anything additional to our septic system after he was done installing. The roof is composition. Any additional thoughts?

I just went to home depot and found a little spray paint can that any paint can be poured into. It was $5. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising! The direction say that I will have to add paint thinner to the paint so that it will go through the sprayer. I'll let you know how it works. I used one of those years ago, and as I recall it worked fine for my purposes. As far as the "paint thinner", if you use latex paint don't use regular paint thinner! You will use water or a thinner made especially for latex. Here is a link that might be useful: This is the type of sprayer I used

Fortunately the fan is pretty close to the wall (8' run maximum?). Wall vent is possible although we are a little concerned what it would look like (unexpected to see a wall vent?) Wall is also a concern as the ceiling is cathedral and the steam, etc. is going to want to naturally travel up (away from vent). It would be alcove shower (3x6') with fan outside of the alcove (if ceiling mounted). Alcove does not abut outside wall. I'm not sure about ducting bending the 90 degrees as the duct would puncture the end of roof framing and the top of wall framing (the horizontal pieces). The exterior wall is shorter than average 77" and I am suspecting part of the reason a soffit vent may no longer be allowed for us is the space is very tight, if that makes sense. Duct looks to be around 4" diameter and wall top and end of roof frame is 2x4 (not 6", 40+ year old house). i agree side venting is preferable to going out the roof and having to deal with snow and ice.

Well, I did not know that Hardie plank could be used. So that's an option! Or there is a composite. Both mentioned above. In our previous home, we used beaded board 4 x 8 sheets. Did the same on the home before that. One was painted, one was stained. Used 1 x 2's to cover seams. The problem is finding enough of any material!