Hi, It is western red cedar with a Woodsman Stain + Cool Colours from Resene, I would expect it to last 50+ years with proper maintenance in line with the paint company recommendations.

This is just gorgeous. I'm currently trying to decide whether I should re-side my house in cedar again, or Hardiplank vertical. My contractor insists the cedar will be far too much maintenance. The Hardiplank just isn't right for the house (pictured). I don't think Resene is available in the States though. Any recommendations for other stains? Thank you! Congrats on a gorgeous house.

Thank you! Your house looks fantastic... would love to see some more pictures. I would definitely go with cedar, it is much more suited to your house. James Hardie products have a terrible reputation in NZ as they have been involved in many leaking buildings so we tend to keep away from using the products in exterior applications. I did find this wood oil in the USA http://www.americanwoodoil.com/exterior/ which may be suitable for the cedar. You would have to check with the manufacturer in terms of suitability, warranties and application. Hope this helps.

Hi - Thanks so much for the kind words AND the helpful information! That's too bad about James Hardie, it is being used on multi-million dollar houses here. The cedar is incredibly expensive and requires a lot of maintenance, but yes, it's the right thing for the house. I purchased the property in 2012 and have been working on it ever since. It was sadly neglected by the previous owners, who actually designed and built it in 1958.

We're redoing the decks now, using mahogany with cable and rail and cedar posts. Again, lots of upkeep, but the house just demands natural materials. The original owners never put a deck on the back of the house, so that's being worked on this week. The two side decks are not code compliant so we can't tear them down, but instead are building around them - a longer process as you know! But hopefully we'll be done with them in the next month or so. Here are a few more pictures of inside and out - I could send you albums! :-)