Good Morning...cold here in the upper midwest. -22 degrees! Hope you're in a warmer place. DH and I struggled with our siding choice as well. We are in our 60s, and like you wanted a completely maintenance free exterior. However, I was dead set against any vinyl. Our builder guided us away from fiber cement as he's had quite a few homeowners with problems, and he was getting little help through the warranty. He recommended Smart Siding, but I just didn't like it at all. Really fake looking, I thought. After checking out many, many other options, we finally decided on Certainteed Impressions. Yes, it is vinyl, which I said I would NEVER have, but we thought it looked really good. It was extremely sturdy, and there were many color choices. Time will tell if we made the right choice.

With great success, we have used Eagle, Kolbe and Marvin windows. These are three manufacturers that build high quality and very durable products that are also very similarly constructed. We generally seek three bids from each division of our building scope, so we find comfort in these three as the highest quality. The decision between the three is then made based on the manufacturer's ability to meet the project's required specification and of course, the price estimates. Most all higher-end wood window products today contain standard options like stainless steel hardware, hidden multi-lock casement lock systems, folding cranks and pivoting sashes for ease of cleaning without the requirement for ladders or scaffold. Many offer an array of standard clad color choices and interior wood species. If you'd like to make an educated decision on your window choice, compare items such as U-value, air infiltration rating, design pressure ratings and warranties. After you have narrowed your selection down based on this criteria, take a look at the individual corner/cut sections of the windows. This is likely the most practical method of foreseeing the durability of a windows construction, if the veiwer has some common sense in how different materials should be joined or applied to each other. In regards to a previous post, it is true that there is great strength in wood sash or frame construction, just like there has been for hundreds of years. Some companies provide a cosmetic wrap known as roll-formed aluminum cladding over the exterior of the wood, which also helps protect the exterior wood from the elements. Other companies use a heavy gauge extruded aluminum cladding that allows for structural corner jointery within the extrusion and combines with the wood sash to enhance the overall structural integrity of the sash and frame. The latter construction method will likely be found to provide greater DP ratings and potentially a more durable product. To further comment on the above post, it is true that reputable companies using roll-formed aluminum sash construction do not experience color differentiation between the sash and extruded frame in short time periods. This differs from less reputable companies using the same construction methods in that the correct way to protect the light gauge metal is to utilize a special "kynar" blended paint to assist in color retention. This is critical due to the paint application differences in roll-formed and extruded aluminum. Roll-formed aluminum requires a light flexible paint to allow the metal to be bent or shaped after the paint has cured. Extruded aluminum is already formed, and thus recieves a hard durable paint finish somewhat similar to how a car body is painted. I personally have nothing against the Pella product noted in the above post. On the contrary, I have a lot of respect for Pella, as a maker of fine products in the Heartland of our country. However, I think that all consumers should receive unbiased information on such critical home fixtures. If you find the price levels of a good quality and highly durable window product out of your home's budget, be sure to closely view the corner sections of each product line within the window manufacturer's different products that fit your budget. My recollection of Proline Series windows from Pella shows that there are more than just options that differentiate that product line from the Designer and Architecture Series, although it might be true that this is what separates the latter two Series. One will only know for sure if they look at the corner/cut sections of the different product lines. Keep in mind, just because a company excels in one product line, doesn't mean that their other product lines hold the same value. I personally don't agree with manufacturers saturating the market with different product lines and relying on their previous reputation to further sales, but it appears that all companies are doing just that these days. I feel that one should do what one does best and concentrate on doing the best in their immediate field of expertise, so be careful in your window decision. Also, I feel strongly that at all costs, one should push the limits of their home construction budget on the permanent fixtures of the home. This includes, but is not limited to, excavation/soil compaction, foundations, framing components, insulation, interior or hidden plumbing, windows and wiring. Having to re-engineer or replace any of these components in the future can generally cause a major disruption to the whole building envelope.

Are you painting because you want a color change or is the tan finish scratched or worn? Anything painted will, inevitably, need to be repainted. If you do not dislike the tan, repainting it tan will mean it will look less worn the nest time it needs painting because any original paint revealed by any peeling of the new layer of paint will be the same.. Consider choosing the same tn color as the siding of your home or a color you like from within any brick or stone you have in your exterior walls -- or, if your windows are trimmed in white, you could use white.

I think people prefer matte because it looks more like wood than anything with a shine, and also because shiny wood floors aren't very popular either. I'm sure they exist, but you may not have a lot of choice.