We just finished building a home that leans towards rustic/modern and were limited in our building materials due to CCRs that govern our area so did not use the Certainteed shakes - but we did stress a bit over our exterior. I kept thinking "It's the first think people will see!" and it's of course what you will see every time you drive up to your house.

I would recommend taking a deep breath. Truth is, both sable brown and savannah wicker will likely look great, but it is REALLY worth the extra cost for the sable brown? And like you pointed out, there are pros and cons to each color, so it's very difficult to reason these things out. Sometimes I had to go with my gut. Another benefit of the savannah wicker is that the house will attract less heat overall.

I think it's normal to have experiences like this during a build, so you can use this one to practice how you will approach the others. Does budget trump all? What is really important to you? I can empathize with trying to stress just enough to keep your head in the game but not so much that you are frazzled every day of your home build. This is supposed to be kinda fun, right? :)

What helpd me (rule out a lighter color) was I asked for addresses where that siding color had been installed to drive by. Seeing the colors on a real sized house made the decision SO much easier.

Also, how much of a price difference? Is there something else you can cut to make up for the difference?

I am making some decisions based on how often I will see/use that decision and spending more on things I will see/use more often (e.g., more on windows, less on shower pan [passed on getting the Kohler cast iron]).

Thanks all. I have actually asked our builder to let me know of homes in the area in savannah wicker and natural clay so I can go see them. I usually don't stress too much over decisions because I normally know what I want, BUT because this was such a tough decision, and finally making it just to be thrown a curve ball, really got to me. Our builder also told me this morning he talked to the rep he deals with for the materials and the rep told him he has never known anyone to purchase the sadle brown (it's actually a taupe brown, not real dark like chocolate) and that he didn't like it. The one positive if I don't get the sable brown is I can get a darker stained wooden door and garage doors. That was one of the struggles in picking the sable brown, I wanted a dark door and didn't think it would look nice with the sable brown, but if I get Savannah Wicker or Natural Clay, I can. I'm trying to look at the positives. I do not yet know the price difference, but he thought it was significant (I think it's silly that color dictates higher cost) I just don't want a house like everyone else has yet, if we sell in the future, would someone else want a brown house? When building I think it's great to customize, but you always need to have in the back of your mind, would someone else like this house? I think more people look for neutral colored homes. I think the big deciding factor will be seeing other homes in person in these colors to help me decide.

Here is a pic in sable brown. I will follow it with a pic of natural clay. I cannot seem to find a good pic of savannah wicker

Here is the natural clay

If you are in a hot climate, I wouldn't recommend a dark color in a vinyl. Vinyl already expands and contracts much more than natural wood or cement fiber siding. Choosing a dark color means even more heat is absorbed by the siding, which leads to greater expansion in the summer. That can mean buckling in summer, and gaps in the winter. There have been issues in the past with the UV resistance of dark vinyls as well. They tend to fade much more than medium to light toned ones. If you want a dark toned home, I'd suggest upgrading to fiber cement siding.

I live in the northeast and the house will be surrounded by a lot of tall pine trees

LOVE the sable brown!

Suggest find out the price difference. Knowing that may make the decision much easier. Don't try to make a decision off of incomplete information, when you don't need to. If the price difference is outrageous - the decision may be easy, if it's not too much - also easy decision.

FWIW....... we live in the midwest, many pines and oaks. South side of house is to the right and although you can't see well, has little shade compared to the rest of the house. We have had no issue with fading. Siding was done in '08. Also no issue with buckling but that has more to do with a heavy, quality product and proper installation than anything else. I think the natural clay is beautiful and would make a stunning house (sorry I can't remember what your plans are). Pick the color you will love.

that sable brown is very pretty. I am partial to grays myself. That is not a common color in the south where we are. Can you post any pics of the other color choices? We are surrounded by pines and picked a grayish green (greenish gray?) :-) I know I would not want to look like every other house and I would pay extra to get the exterior color I really wanted. You are going to drive up to it every single day.

Here is a photo of the color options. We were going with Sable Brown, but are now looking at Natural Clay and Savannah Wicker. If you go to certainteed.com and look at their cedar shake vinyl selections, you can see the colors better than on this pic

colors

Dlm2000 I love your house! The landscaping is so beautiful and inviting. I want to hang in your yard all day :)

I just have to say that plan is the same one my husband and I have fallen in love with. Are you building as is? We love it, but it's a bit too large for us. Have you received a quote to build? We want to stay between $550 and $600k.

Michelle, we made some changes. We did not like how the kitchen and family room were so we made it into one big open area. We did the 3 bedroom with a 2 story family room instead of 4 bedrooms. We made some other first floor changes like a big mud room/laundry room combo any pantry between the kitchen and garage. Cost is $400k but of course we will go over budget.

Here is the first floor with our modifications

Very cool! And I'm excited to hear your bid. We're building in MI. Perhaps if we simplify the plan we may get it in price range. It's such a gorgeous house! When do you break ground?

We already have as you can see

Ha! I guess you did! Love it!

I really like your original choice vs. The others. They just seems so common. I'm guessing it is more costly to make the darker ones.

Of the ones mldn posted I like the ivy green, hearthstone, and spruce in addition to your original choice.

We used Certainteed Cedar Impressions Double 9" Staggered Rough-Split Shakes in Sable Brown in all our gables. There was a big difference in thickness of the shakes between the Single 7" vs the Double 9". The reason we know is because they shipped the single 7" by mistake. I honestly don't know if the Sable Brown was more because that is the only color we had the contractor quote for us.

The Sable Brown really has some grayish tint to it. We went with primed Hardie Board. The photos below are the primed colors of both the Hardie and trim. We are anxiously waiting for the exterior to be painted. The reason why I know there is some grayish tint is because of the problems I was running into matching a Clay color for the siding. Some Clay's are more brown. The Clayish color we plan to use has more gray to complement the Sable Brown and the Bronze color we are using for our trim around the windows and doors.

Our supplier provided a large sample of the shakes. Very helpful in matching. Good Luck. Our exterior choices were one of the hardest decisions we made.

Close-up

Hoosierbred, thank you! I do realize and like that the sable brown has a grayish tint. Since you actually have it, how do you think it will look on the house we are building? We would do white trim and a few rows of the peaks in a light color. What do you think? This is hard because I haven't seen a house done in this color in person. Thank you

I really like the look of your inspiration photos with the sable brown and white trim. I think that would look lovely on your home. Are you saying you might do a different color in your gables? What color would you use? What color are your window exteriors?

I honestly like the look of the sable brown all over with the white trim. I would have gone with white trim but didn't like it with our clay color. Plus we have the bronze window exteriors. We are matching our house with our pole barn colors. Since I couldn't find a good match in prefinished Hardie, we went with a primed Hardie and are having it painted.

I made several copies of our front elevation drawings of the house and colored them in with colored pencils to get an idea of what I liked.

If you look at the pic of the house we are building, it looks like there are maybe 3 rows of the vinyl shake in white at the tops of the peaks. I thought it might look nice to put a light color in the peaks but not sure yet

Sorry, I guess I didn't look that close to see those top rows. They look nice! I think you would be fine either way.

Chloe,

My husband and I are looking at using the plan, but he's concerned about the placement of the master bath over the screened in porch for plumbing purposes. Did you change the upstairs floor plan?

Do you have pictures of the finished house? We are considering using Sable Brown...

IMO. if you use shingles you should wrap the corners and eliminate the corner boards. I don't know if that is possible with imitation shingles.

JDS there are corner pieces available from many vinyl shingle manufacturers but they very widely not only in quality and look but also how they direct (or not) water infiltration.

Which color shingles looks good with sable brown? First we decide sable brown with Gaf weathered wood shingles and white trim. Now we changed our mind and ordered dark bronze windows. I really like to get same color trims and gutter. But now I'm thinking if weathered wood will look too light.

Any updates on these houses???? I am another one of those "undecided" ones on exterior colors!! Need help! We are building in Michigan. Very interested in Sable Brown but not sure if it would be too dark. Completed photos would be AWESOME!!! Thank you!!

Iam in the same boat now, where I have chosen the Hearthstone for the siding, but undecided if I should use a sable brown cedar impressions on the two bumpouts with white box windows. Does anyone else have any inspiration photos that can help me visualize?

Maheshsks - this is an old post but we just had hearthstone color siding installed and now can’t decide which roof color to go with. What color did roof did you go with?