CertainTeed siding....Love it

Here's the first look at our fiber cement siding. We had a lot of angst over this, since we chose it from a very small sample, but it really does look good. The board from the James Hardy company that every builder thrust upon us didn't look anything like we wanted, but Ellen researched and found this product from CertainTeed. It seemed to give us a truer wood look, but you really can't tell from pics or a 4" sample. There were no homes in the area we could visit to actually see it installed either. We gambled and in this case, won. These pictures don't do it justice, but I'm hoping when they get more of it on, and the trim painted, you'll get a better sense of it. Up close, it looks very much like wood. The trim will be the same color as the windows. You can see the window trim in this pic, but the corner and bottom pieces are unpainted. The trim is a synthetic material too, guaranteed not to rot, although we'll have to repaint it all one day. The standard synthetic colors didn't match the windows or the siding, so painting was our only option. Ellen was ecstatic when she saw it this morning, and called me immediately to let me know how much she liked it. Even the builder and his crew thought it was much better looking than the Hardy board they usually install. I stopped out after my business meetings to take a quick look, and these two pics.

The painters start this week, the tile guy next and the hardwood floors the week after. Over the next few weeks, we should have some better and more interesting photos for you.