our nichiha has been up for a while now and we still have people knock at the door to ask what color we painted our siding. they seem shocked when i tell them it's cement. we're six miles inland in central new jersey and have just come through hurricane sandy with absolutely no damage to the siding. it's unfortunate most of the trees and telephone poles didn't hold up as well. in the meantime, as i drive down our street not everyone was as fortunate. i noticed a newly sided house had to have some repair work done on their hardiboard. ;-) without question, nichiha is superior to hardi. we have a factory finish in weathered gray. love it.

Congratulations on your new home! Weathered shingle houses are VERY common in my "stomping grounds" of eastern NH and eastern Maine. The shingles tend to go gray more often than brown around here, but we do see quite a bit of that distinctive mixture of browns ranging from almost golden-y to a bitter-chocolate color. Probably the biggest thing to pay attention to is the color value of the roof - the accent colors should be about the same value (meaning lightness or darkness) as the roof. If the roof is too pale for the rest of the house it can look a little like the roof is going to lift off and float away, if it's too dark for the rest of the colors it looks overly heavy, like it's weighting down the house (a very common problem). If your roof is light-colored, like the verdigris color that's pretty popular for green metal roofing, look to the lighter tones in the variegated shingles and riff off those for the color value of your trim. The accent color I see paired with this siding most often is a rich browny-red, which would look wonderful and not necessarily all Christmasy with the green roof. If you want to "perk up" any window sashes or other details with a lighter color, a very deep cream or even putty would look nice, but don't tart it up too much. Another color I've seen work really well a few times is a slatey blue, although the success of that would again depend on the roof. Check out the deeper blues in the BM Historical line like Hale Navy or Newburyport Blue. When we were househunting two summers ago we looked at a little bitty antique (very early 19th century) Cape Cod with weathered-brown shingles. It had white window sashes and wide board-and-batten shutters (completely operable) and board-and-batten front door were a moderately deep, muted blue-green color. The heavier trim around windows and doors was the same as the shingles. IIRC the roof was halfway between bark brown and charcoal gray. It was a real charmer but not in a great location for us.

It's sure not an easy decision. I have a cottage, and some of our 35 year old untreated cedar shingle siding is damaged and needs repair because it was installed in areas in direct contact with the roof. Our contractor has suggested tearing the off the cedar and going with LPSmart siding, a composite, there is also Ecoshel, cedar shingle siding. I have researched at the Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau, who have been extremely helpful and what I have come up with is...there is no replacement for real wood. If I repair the cedar which has been on for 35 years, I should get another 15 years. If I put on the composite it's lengevity is questionable, as with any newer product. I do know the cedar I have, although in need of repair has been on for 35 years and still has some life in it. Some people think the cedar is just old and dirty looking, I love it

Clap board siding looks much the same in every material—vinyl, hardiplank, wood. When I looked up Dutch lap in vinyl I found it is narrow compared to its wood version. Below is a photo montage of these sidings. My first choice is the clap board because of its resemblance to wood. I have no problem with man-made materials, but I think they should closely mimic the original. Of the two Dutch lap choices I like the bottom one better because it is wider and closer to how a wood version would look.