Cedar Wood Vs.Pressure Treated Pine Aromatic Red Cedar: Cedar is a very stable wood. It does not warp, or shrink, or check (as pressure treated pine most likely will do eventually). A product using cedar boards will have a much nicer appearance, after 10 years compared to a pressure treated pine. Our cedar usually comes from Missouri, Oklahoma, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. It can be 50-80 years old. Cedar lumber costs a little more than the fast grown southern yellow pine, but it is well worth the extra expense. Cedar could last 30 years or more and will stay straight! Pressure Treated Pine: This type of lumber usually originates from the southeastern U.S., and can be a southern yellow pine species or a mixed pine species. It is a fast growing tree; being one of the few types that can be pressure treated. Other types of wood have a different cell structure and will not accept the treatment process. This pine, after it has been cut to size, is kiln dried to remove most of the moisture. Then it is bundled up and put into huge cylindrical tanks. Next, a water based solution of micronized copper azole is forced into the wood fibers under pressure. This process makes the wood very heavy and gives it a dark green appearance. This pressure treated pine (PT pine) is guaranteed by the manufacturer not to decay or have insect damage for 10 years or more. It is not guaranteed against shrinkage, warping, checking (splitting). We do not guarantee that this will not happen because it often does. When PT pine starts drying out it can develop "checks" which look like splits or cracks in the posts or boards. This is not an uncommon complaint from new owners of wood products. Actually, the wood is slightly shrinking, a natural seasoning (drying out) of any piece of lumber. When a fence post dries, the outer surface (sapwood) shrinks faster than the inner heart of the piece, and something has to give. For this reason, posts have a natural tendency to develop a V-shaped check towards the center. The result is the familiar "check" which is technically neither a split nor a crack. Depending on the weather and season your wood fence is installed, checking may occur right away, or might wait for warmer weather. We usually never use PT pine for the posts because they will decay in the ground must faster than a cedar post would. Because of this we only use cedar posts for fencing. Here is a link that might be useful: cedar

We have had hardieplank on our house since 2005. It was the pre-primed hardieplank and we painted it after it was installed, so I can't speak to the durability of the Hardie factory finish. But as far as our siding goes, there has been no problems with peeling, swelling, or any other issues - except for being slightly dirty, the paint looks as good as the day we painted it (wish I could say the same thing for the wood trim on the eaves). We get snow here as well, though not usually high enough for long enough that it would sit high against the siding for weeks on end. But we do get snow and haven't had any issues. As far as installation, Hardie had a few specific instructions that are apparently ignored by a lot of installers. You want to make sure they prime any cut ends -- our contractor just kept a quart of cheap primer next to the saw and as soon as he'd cut a board, he'd slop some primer on it. Also, any butt seams (where two boards join together to make one "long" piece) should not be caulked but rather should have a piece of flashing behind them to keep water out of the seam - our guy used small pieces of aluminum. Finally, you need to keep the hardie several inches off any rooflines (of porches, etc.) -- I think at the time the guideline was 2". And yes, this does look a bit gappy and it would look better lower, but as our contractor said, you can have it lower and rotting and no warranty since you installed it wrong or you can have it higher and have it be fine. We opted for the latter and I don't even really see the gap anymore. We used a rainscreen behind our hardie for other reasons (our house was being resided as part of a mold/stucco remediation and we knew the wall cavities weren't fully dry yet so wanted to provide as much airflow as possible), but I'd imagine that that also provides extra protection against any kind of moisture issues. If your cottage is small and you are concerned about snow, that might be something to look into. It didn't cost much to add and would provide extra protection against any moisture issues. I'll link to the whole story of our house below if you're interested. There are some pics of the siding install, the rainscreen, and the finished product. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Our house

Cedar would be a much better choice, and rot resistant. However, you must maintain any wood you use (seal) or it will rot.

Put some images on Flickr. Click "celtwheel's photostream" http://www.flickr.com/photos/54739693@N07/ 1 - Before (Solid stain, bad condition, other layers underneath) 2 - Job in progress. Note quality of strip to bare wood 3 - Wood Tux on PTP 4 - same Here is a link that might be useful: Flickr