We used to have natural cedar siding on our old house. I believe we used a product called CWF-UV (Clear Wood Finish-Ultra Violet protection ) in Cedar. I've attached pictures of our old house. Cedar has an orange cast to it, but the CWF brought out the dark reds too. Here's a link to the CWF http://www.acetogo.com/product/19794/finish+wd+cwf+cedar+gal.html Here is a link that might be useful: CWF on Cedar

I'm cracking up because of the number of colors you have tried. I'm the same way when it comes to finding the perfect option for just about anything. Maybe you are simply looking to have fun with color and want more than two colors on your house, but I like to make gutters as inconspicuous as possible. So, I would probably paint the fascia the same color as the window trim and gutters and the soffit either the same color as the house or the same color as the fascia. The sandy accent color is nice, though. If you don't mind the gutter being more noticeable (or change them to match the fascia color), you could paint the fascia Ponytail and the soffit Navajo Red.

Find a paint chip card that has the colors of the lightest, medium and darkest bricks. Use the lightest color for the siding and the darkest for shutters. A new pinkish white will be fine for the trim that is already white. Test your samples on foamcore board cut to the width of the shutters.

opaone- Not sure where you live, but those economics don't apply in most of the areas I'm familiar with. One of my daughters has seen the market value of her 1930's home increase by about $500K in the last 5 years. Another daughter just bought a 75 year old house -- that has not been remodeled --- for more than ten times it's original cost...and it was a bargain. My first house was a 1950's suburban rambler that I bought for $45K in 1974, did some remodeling to, and sold for over $700K 15 years ago; the buyer started an update, but decided to sell 5 years after that for $1.3 million, even though parts of the remodel were only half done. My neighbor across the fence paid about $400K for a 1960's split level 8 years ago. He has done nothing to it other than paint the exterior, and expects to be able to sell it soon for at least twice what he paid. Some people do want new houses, but many people prefer the charm and building material quality of older homes. As long as they have been maintained, older home values keep increasing over the long term. I have been through more than one market cycle where my home lost value on paper, but it's always more than recovered. In fact, I've always lived in the suburbs and have done much better with buying and selling homes than any other thing I've invested money in. I'm sure some suburbs decline, but, in areas with decent economies, suburban homes still increase in price as young people are priced out of the urban market. They seek out these homes as their longer commutes make them less expensive than a similar house close in. The lower suburban price doesn't mean the houses are falling apart. I agree with you on the trend for people to want things close by and not have to drive as much, but those types of communities and infrastructure are starting to be built where I live by savvy developers who have figured out where our aging demographics are taking us. And these types of projects, while they may not have all the amenities of living right downtown, do offer an alternative to the grittier aspects of big city urban life. In fact, we have good friends who just sold their beautiful downtown condo with spectacular views to get away from noise and panhandling, and move to a home in a nearby suburb where many things are no longer within waking distance, but the living environment is more pleasant.