Existing conditions are that there is no overhang. Not sure how else to describe it. None, nada. Roof stops at the top of the sides of the house. None of the houses in our old neighborhood have overhangs except in one case where the homeowner had it added. It doesn't extend out that much, 1 foot at most, but probably a little less. The roof is 17 years old and does need to be replaced. We just don't know whether we should add the task of adding an overhang to the job. Our climate is almost tropical here in Houston, TX. No snow but a lot of heat. The roofer "does do overhangs", at least according to what he says. Though this roofer was highly rated, we are going to at least interview another roofer. "require a canopy" means (I thought) require extra build out beneath the overhang (other than the standard extension of the studs that are part of the roof) in order to support the overhang. (Kind of like requiring the brackets under each shelf that are used when building a book shelf.) Don't want to have to add brackets underneath the overhang, I don't think.

Order the primed hardy and then get a color matched paint to paint it once installed. Or what most would do, not worry about it. I think it would be very hard to tell the color difference on different walls. What color is the original siding?

There are two criteria you have mentioned, a [1] vault/cathedral and [2] exposed rafters/beadboard. These need to be approached as different thought processes: [1] A complete cathedral ceiling following the roof rafters would not be a good solution with this steep roof pitch. If you reference @Jon Alan's 3-D drawing (thank goodness he did that!), you can see you have a very shallow 14' depth of footprint combined with an upper wall that needs to be present to block seeing the existing roof. That would create a large, cavernous out of proportion space with a tiny length of ridge at the top. Add to that the slanted hip roof converging with the straight vertical attic wall, and the darkness up there, it would look nothing like any of the inspiration pictures you have let alone the functionality of cleaning cobwebs. Many might say use a gable roof instead of the hip. However, I do not think that would be a good solution for the same reasons. The footprint width is 24'-8" and a gable would spread that width at that steep pitch. So you would be left with a similar cavernous out of proportion cathedral ceiling at only 14' deep. Not to mention the gable end wall would be very high (though maybe filled with windows?) and would probably dominate or not fit with the existing house roof and proportions. Again cleaning those windows and high ridge point and seeing that huge blank attic wall. [2] Exposed rafters and beadboard can be donein any case of roof, whether following the roof rafters or on a false ceiling. The beadboard can actually be "faux," meaning it does not have to be on the outside of the rafters, but added later as a finish in between the rafters. __________________ So, it seems to solve the proportion dilemma for a vault/cathedral, you have 2 choices: [A] lower the pitch on the roof (whether hip or gable), or [B] create a lower false ceiling inside (whether that ceiling is a tray, hip, or gable): [A] Will a lower pitch than the existing roof blend well with the house? Will a gable look out of place? [B] When building a false lower ceiling, which of the 3 styles would lend well to being exposed adjacent to an enclosed flat ceiling, and remain proportionate to the 14' depth x 24'-8" length? __________________ Realize if your footprint were rotated and was 24' deep and only 14' wide, then that would lend better to an exposed hip or gable cathedral roof, and it would look like most of your inspiration pics.

Thanks for that sketch! Thats the look we're hoping for. We were concerned about the seam between the existing roof and this - we need to make sure we don't get ice or moisture building up. Also, this will dress up the back of the house. The front of the house has a lot of stone and steel supports and exposed i-beams, but the back ended up much plainer than we thought it would look, especially after the overhang was reduced. The designer and architect of the home have both said that heated gutters and snow bars are their best suggestions, but we're meeting with them in a few weeks and want to have some solid ideas going into that discussion.