Cobblestone, Monterey Taupe and Amazing Gray

September 1st

Our construction site has been pretty quiet for the past couple of weeks.  But while there hasn't been much construction happening there has been a lot of planning and decision-making.  You would think I would not be surprised by all the decisions that have to be made in the course of a construction project, but I feel like every time I turn around there are more selections and/or decisions to be made.  There's a lot of pressure to decide on something you will literally live with!

With the Tyzek wrap up, the Builder was ready to purchase the exterior wall materials.  We needed to make a final decision about the house siding material, choosing between vinyl siding, insulated vinyl siding, or cement board siding.  Of couse there is a price tag associated with each of these choices.  (The costs are never far from our minds.)  Integral with the siding selection was the stone selection.  The colors need to compliment each other.  While we were pondering the wall finish materials the Builder asked for a paint color for the foundation walls.  He wanted to paint the foundation walls before back-filling the dirt around the house.  I said "I can't pick the foundation paint color until we pick the siding colors!"  It's all relatived.  So all of a sudden we had lots of decisions to make, and I felt like I was holding up progress.


Partial Elevation of the Front of the House

There are two siding materials to select - the horizontal siding to go on the main walls of the house at the sides and rear, and the "shake" siding that will go on those areas of the house that project from the main planes of the house.  We decided that we want the shake siding to be a slightly darker color than the typical siding boards.  To complicate matters more, the color selections for materials shown within manufacturers' brochures is NEVER accurate.  So the Builder had to find real samples for color selection. 
Finally, we decided to use a fiber cement board siding product called "HardiPlank".  The horizontal siding will be "Cobblestone" color, and the shakes will be "Monterey Taupe".

Once the siding types and colors were selected I picked the paint color for the basement walls - Sherwin Williams "Amazing Gray".


Basement wall, painted "Amazing Gray"