nice inspo.

I would remove the deck all together and start fresh with a simple deck at floor level... as large as possible to add exterior living space. Use a cable railing system where necessary to meet code.

do just the B&B on the height that can accomodate the 10' length and use the verticle cedar on the rest. I agree, don't highlight the gable with anything horizontal... just run it all vertically.

Thank you Lyn, I completely understand and appreciate your response.

Freshly painted/sided houses usually look great. What you need is some landscaping.

Yep, I agree that the front porch is just not a graceful entrance into this lovely home.

And I don't understand how you combine board and batten with cedar tongue and grove successfully.

Don't overcomplicate your exterior solution.

i don't know if this is helpful, but if there's any way to break the house into separate "volumes" you could use that as a way to denote your siding. We went with hardiboard but I would have quite liked board and batten for our place, i just got overruled by our builder/architect and my husband.

here's an example of what I'm talking about. Only our taller inset volume is sided with shiplap cedar. Everything else is painted hardi