Rot free, easy to paint, and pest free would be the driver for me- what if it were smooth board and batten? Would you really miss the texture? I would strip everything off to the sheathing, install smooth hardi panels over it, and use hardi 1x4s as the battens. If you really want the textured they have cement board sheets with 'cedar' grain, I'm sure someone has a comparable 1x4 to use as the batten
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the extra space behind faucet
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