Hardi-plank

Just looked at the product details, is there a stain option? I prefer staining it versus a solid colour. If I like the wood grains, I guess the Cedarmill option is better? I'm not too familiar with this product. thanks for your help

or Canexel
http://www.canexel.ca/Ced-R-Vue-en.php
It is very difficult to find "real" wood products that are also stainable that are not very expensive as well.

Where is the front door by the way?

Hi Michael, thank you. I looked under the link and downloaded the brochure. They are all solid colours and not stains. Maybe I'm missing something? I want the cedar stained look of a house.

Front door is between the tower and the two set of windows.

Yes, I understand the dilemma, however, I am not familiar with any materials that offer the look of real wood, that can be stained like real wood, but are not real wood. If you want real wood then you will have to pay for it.
Maibec is a beautiful product. I have used it on many projects, however, I don't believe that they offer a transparent stain option. They do match to any colour chart and I believe that they prefer to use Cabot stains as their base, so maybe you should contact them and see if a transparent Cabot stain is possible.

I run into this problem a lot. What we often end up doing is paying a premium price for the wood siding that we use around areas where it is highly visible, such as at a front door and outdoor sitting areas and then using cheaper materials in the other areas.

You could also look at a combination of real wood siding and sheet materials such as Hardipanel. This would still be in keeping with your "contemporary/modern" look.

What kind of low slope metal roofing are you using?

Did you design this yourself? I absolutely love it! If not, where did you find this plan, I would love to take a look at it. We are considering building again ( yes, I know, we must be crazy!)

Hi Michael, thx for the clarification. It sounds like I either have to pay up or can't achieve that look. Someone also mentioned siding with a smoothed finished to get a more contemporary feel. The difference between cedar vs. these siding are like $10/sqft installed, stained, etc. That's quite a bit of an upgrade for me to achieve that feel. But for my design, I can't really do it at just the front or just the back.

Tamrenner, are your referring tot he Bryant Remodel? Just follow Michael's profile to his webpage, there are some pretty awesome photos there.

It is hard to tell from your renderings but is the grey textured material intended to be a stone? I would suggest that a smooth solid stained siding could look extremely nice with a stone on this design.

@iceggg i was actually referring to your design dilemma, the house you are planning to build, its amazing

Yes Michael, those are stone finishes, all the way around the house at the base and the tower. Altho I live in Ontario, I particularly like the Western Canada homes and I modeled my house after that theme. How wide of a siding would you consider? 5 inch?

Hi Tamrenner, yes, my wife and I designed it through many many iterations. We are building this on a budget which makes it more difficult. That's why we have to pick our spots on where to spend. We also have two young ones and our floorplan (altho not shown), is very much geared for young family. Our kitchen and great room (including dining room table) is all in one open concept area which overlooks our backyard. My wife and I spend most of our time in the kitchen and we'd like to keep our eyes on the two little ones. Off to the right are 3 bedrooms (my wife wants to be close by our kids) and we asked the builder to have a small interconnecting loft area (4ft high) in each of our kids bedroom. There is a second floor loft area with an extra bedroom for guests and an office above garage.

those damn budgets, they always get in the way! It sounds like it will be a beautiful place. I believe there is siding that looks like wood...... are you against stucco?

Look for a smaller profile/exposure with a strong reveal. And keep the colour on the lighter side if that appeals. The reveal will show up better in the sun and give the wall much more presence. I would go with a channel siding that has a 4" exposure if you can find it.
What part of Ontario are you in? Have you checked any local mills to see if they will do a run for you?

I live in Toronto. Not sure if there are any local mills nearby.

@tamrenner: not totally against stucco but I do like the look of wood more.

Check out Allura cement siding if you haven't already. Looks much more like wood grain.