Always smooth unless it is a mountain house. Vertical would look nice in the gables but you already have stone AND painted brick so I think stick to all being horizontal.

I didn't the rule about "smooth unless it's a mountain house", so I'm glad you told me. Would you do with the smooth plank with a bead, or without?

The company whose truck took out our powerline just happens to be a large building supply company in the area, and it sounds like they will be paying for the upgrade in an effort to "make things right". They have 8.25" in stock for any of the options (smooth, woodgrain, beaded, unbeaded)—does that size sound right to you?

With respect to the brick, we could certainly either repaint it or remove the paint and do more of a "wash" on it—if that's even an option. You had suggested buff or olive in my previous post, so I'm curious to know whether you would paint the siding and brick the same color or not

Appreciate all your help!

I'm all about low maintenance, so Hardie sounds great. My concern would be that the bead and cedarmill details would be dirt catchers, therefore, not as low maintenance as the smooth with no bead, which also look to be more in line with the original siding. Noticed you have a lot of white brick. Is painting it to match the stone an option when you do the addition? Not sure Romabio can help since it looks to be painted already, but you might visit with them about it. They do custom colors and could probably match the stone pretty well. I'd also match the siding to a warm color in the stone work that melds with the roof. Lastly, brighten the door with a fresh color and get the landscaping under control; it looks to be overtaking the house. No suggestion on the AC hose though.

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+1 smooth, no bead. there are line covers you can purchase that will give a neater appearance if you can’t bury the lines in the walls.

Painting the stone could be an option, but so far I haven’t seen any painted stone that looks nice. I would almost rather remove the entire front and do some thing else, though I cannot imagine the labor involved in getting all of that down 😱

We got the unbeaded Cedarmill on the back of our garage last year. There are six attached garages, so we matched the others. So far it hasn't gotten dirty or needed extra maintenance. What kind of siding is prevalent in your area?

This is a double post. Here is the first one. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6179352/what-color-would-you-use-we-are-limited-by-the-stone-and-ugly-roof

It’s not a double post - the first one was about color only. This one is mainly about the TYPE of siding, with the comment as a side point. I also linked to my original post 🙂

@latifolia - the siding in my area (metro DC) is all over the place. Most of the older homes are from the 50s-70s, and those with siding are either aluminium, vinyl or Hardiplank. There is probably some wood siding, but I don't think I see it very often

Many older homes have been torn down and replaced by large-footprint craftsmen or modern homes, so it really is all over the place