I'd pick out my brick/stone first if I were you. Reason: it's a lot easier to find paint (which literally comes in a kajillion colors) that will coordinate with your selected stone/brick than it is to go the other way round. In fact, as a general rule, starting with the material that has the fewest available color options and then building from there is usually the easiest way to go. Roofing also tends to come in a relatively limited palette so I'd probably choose stone first, then roofing, and FINALLY paint colors for the remainder. If you like the idea of grey for the hardi and shakes, that's fine...just don't try to settle on a particular grey before you find a stone/brick that you can love and have picked out at least one possible roofing shingle that will go with it. If you choose brick or stone with a cool cast or a bluish/greyish undertone, you should have no trouble finding greys to coordinate with it. Of course, before you actually buy anything, you should have everything selected. That's what samples are for. There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting samples of two or threes brick/stones and putting together the best shingles and paint colors that you can for each of them and THEN deciding which combinations you like best. Finally, because the house has so many different exterior materials, I'd probably try to stick with a monotone color palette except for contrasting front door. Otherwise the overall effect might be uncomfortably "busy".

Research is great - it makes you a more informed consumer. However, it WON'T make you a designer or architect; for that you need years of school and years of practical experience. Please do not think it will. You still need a designer - whether it's a licensed architect or a designer who has good design skills, knowledge of the building code and local requirements and the ability to produce a good set of working drawings. There are architectural diploma programs that don't give you a degree in architecture, but do give you a lot of the technical skills - the design part is something you'll have to research by checking out recommendations and reviews as well as as-built examples. We have two or three local architectural design offices. One of the offices does an excellent job at drafting and creating a good set of working drawings, but on the design end, they're very pedestrian. The other one I'm familiar with is the one we used - he's a much more talented designer. The other part of the equation - equally important, IMHO, is a general contractor who not only does quality work, but is capable of thinking outside the box when he runs into difficulties or challenges. We were very lucky in having ours; he made our house build a pleasure.

The view is 100% on the east side of the house. Thus the windows, deck etc. There is no view on the south side, some trees and such. on the north side we have a neighbor and the west side is the only access to the property and thus where the front door must be. The road dead ends at our home so the need for curb appeal is really just for us and our guests. There are only 3 other neighbors who would even drive by the view side of the house. The property has a pretty big slope so to avoid 20foot foundation walls etc we are trying to keep it as narrow as possible as far as how deep the house runs. We are at or near to the maximum width already. Along the west side(front) we are trying to avoid a massive 60ft foundation run because of expense and we are told it will be more stable by the geotechnical engineer I realize a 4’11” x 14’ closet is not everyone’s cup of tea but it works for us Anyways thanks for the input. I’d really like suggestions for siding on the exterior.

I was so focused on the kitchen I didn't notice how the garage was attached. I assume that is still in the planning stage, too. I rearranged the laundry and moved the wall up to ease the corner, and to provide an entry from the smaller garage (easily omitted if not necessary)--but that puts a small, money-slurping jog by the other garage entry. It looks as if the laundry keeps getting smaller, and storage is disappearing from the entry, so the shallow cabinets on the kitchen wall to the right of the hall (as one enters) could be dedicated to entry storage. I also pulled the double closet toward the hall, to provide a little more space at the top of the basement stairs.