Hello from a fellow Puget Sounder! Hubby and I are currently researching the building of our dream home up on Whidbey Island (our property looks out over Saratoga Passage) and we have visions of a shingle sided cottage. Like you, we're hoping for low maintenance, and our research so far seems to indicate that if you pick the right shingles and if they are applied properly, they should easily last 30 to 50 years with little or no maintenance required. (We built a very nice arbor and fence 20 years ago with Alaskan yellow cedar; the wood has held up very well, despite lots of shade and rain, with no rot and without the need for stain or paint - we just allowed it to age to a nice silvery gray.)

Check out this link for an interesting article discussing the benefits of wood shingles, as well as the alternatives, such as Hardie plank.

http://mainehomedesign.com/rotating-features/404-cant-decide-on-siding.html

Best of luck on your new home!

Thank you for the information carpecattus! Nice to see someone else from up north :) Best of luck building on Whidbey... what a beautiful area!

I may be biased at the moment but I wouldnt choose real shingles. I just spent the past two days re-staining cedar shingles on one of my competitors homes that is only 4 years old. They are a good builder and stained appropriately but they face south and just require a lot of maintenance.

I fear I may be rebuked for this suggestion but have you considered poplar bark? Its better as an accent but I think its always a better alternative to real shingles.

Also try Nichiha. Fiber cement product just as good as Hardie but usually more affordable. Not sure about that weathered look though..

Here is a link that might be useful: Nichiha shingles

SpringtimeHomes, thank you so much for the Nichiha information. From looking online it looks like their shingles are much more realistic when it comes to the weathered look. They used to have weathered gray ones, but it doesn't look like they are available anymore. I'm linking to a photo I found of a house that used those shingles... I love it! I emailed the company and I look forward to hearing from them.

Here is a link that might be useful: weathered gray Nichiha shakes

Love them! I think that there could be some long term aesthetic maintenance benefits to those as well.

Cant resist sharing a pic of poplar bark on one of our homes. Very similar look...

Here is a link that might be useful:

We too are having the questions on the look of the shingles. Nichiha only offers the Frontier line in pre stained. Much less detailed looking than the previous Sierra line and only four colors. The sierra line is still avalable in primed only. We were ready to go with "leftovers" in the discontinued Sierra but the company "Pulled" them from the distributors in case of needing replacements for previous buyers. Nichiha priced highest in my area than other fiber cements.
Now we are looking at real cedar shingles pre finished from cedar shingles direct . com Does anyone have experience with them? A friend just redid his 40 year old shingle siding this summer and said only good things about using real cedar.
We currently have Certainteed vinyl Cedar Impressions on our five year old house but are building our forever house and were looking into fiber cement but none looks as real as the vinyl we have.

The Nichiha weathered gray to me was the most realistic. Before we decided on brick, I requested samples of it and several other colors. Nichiha can be shiny, and the weathered gray was less so. I can't believe they discontinued that - it was very nice looking!

After researching and getting samples, we are now thinking of just going with hardie shingles & planks and then painting them all the same color... a beachy blue/grey or a soft yellow. We are doing white trim. Since our house is mostly planks with some shingles, I don't want the shingles to be significantly different from the planks. Oh decisions, decisions!