First up in the renovation process is the exterior facelift. Unexpectedly, it was the hardest part of the decision making process; all of the decisions have to be made first because the exterior is up and ready to go pretty quickly while the interior of the house is a slow process of sadness. Moreover, I was very indecisive when it came to finalizing what we were going to do.
General Design
Before we go any further, here’s what the house looks like today:
We knew we didn’t want to dig foundation so, for all intents and purposes and other than a tiny bit of excavation and building up the second floor, this is the floor plan of the house. The challenge then became maximizing the potential of the house within this space.
The road to a renovation always begins with inspiration. I’ve lived through an extensive renovation before so I’m slightly more knowledgeable than, say, the average homeowner, but I’m still pretty clueless when it comes to the technical aspects of building a home. It’s really important to be very detailed with your wishlist so that the people with actual training can tell you if those things are actually doable in your space and within your budget. It’s really difficult as a layman to articulate what you like to an architect or contractor without using imagery, so I always create a Pinterest board (or in the case of this renovation, several boards) to begin the process of gathering and fleshing out ideas.
Below is a gallery from my Pinterest of some of the exteriors that inspired us:
So there’s quite a bit of variation in these photos, but it’s a variation on a theme when you spend a little time reviewing the photos. I don’t love everything in every photo, but there were things in each that I loved. Blended traditional and modern elements. A metal roof. At least some vertical siding, and dark and light siding together in a thoughtful way. Steel or steel-look windows in some areas, but white double hung in others. Glass elements. The house also sits very far back on a 4 acre lot, so we wanted to take advantage of the front yard views and add a porch.
When we first starting talking to the architects, Neil and Rob at Neil Hauck Architects, we gave them these photos, then highlighted all those things that we really liked in them. With that information they created the first elevation iteration, which honestly isn’t too far from where we ultimately landed.
What we loved about the elevations: the glass mudroom, vertical nickel gap siding on the garage, metal front door, and traditional white double hung windows on the white part of the house. We didn’t love that the sunroom, which was going to be all steel, looked so clunky under the white clapboard siding. And we couldn’t decide if we wanted to switch to Board and Batten siding on the white part of the house or keep it clapboard.
My husband and I need to see things drawn to really get a sense of them, so we asked if the sunroom area could be modeled darker, like the garage, so the sunroom wouldn’t look so odd to us. We also wanted to see Board and Batten siding replacing the clapboard. We were given a few options:
Sunroom dark 
Board and Batten Replaces Clapboard 
Dark Elements on Both Sides
My idea of darkening the sunroom area left the house looking lopsided. I liked the Board and Batten a lot, but we were concerned that, with standing seam metal roof and nickel gap siding on other parts of the house, there were too many vertical elements. But then the architect came up with the inspired idea of darkening both sides of the house, which seemed like a perfect way to make the house feel more balanced, the sunroom metal feel less clunky, and add to the rustic modern aesthetic that we really love.
The Nitty Gritty
So if you thought we were mostly done when we picked the elevation we liked most, you would be wrong. Because now you have to pick the actual products to make the house, and there are so many products to choose from.
Roof/Gutters and Chimney Wrap:
We knew we wanted a standing-seam metal roof on our house. It’s much more expensive than standard asphalt, but lasts for three or four decades longer. There are also other options like cedar shake or slate shingles, but the former requires regular maintenance to last and the latter is super expensive, requires additional support because stone is heavy, and honestly just didn’t make sense for our home design.
There are a bunch of options in the metal roof world. We decided on a Gavalume roof and gutters because it’s super durable (can last for 60 years!) but much more affordable than copper and most comparable products, and had very few negatives compared to other metal roofing products. Here are some a few examples of standing seam roofs on homes somewhat similar to ours:
We haven’t finalized color. I’d like to go very light, but we’re also wondering if thin film solar panel technology will eventually get to the point where it’s readily available and we could install between the seams of the roof in places where it wouldn’t be too noticeable from the ground; there are plenty of solar companies saying these products are coming, but whether they’ll be affordable and not look totally horrible is TBD. If we’re serious about solar, a darker roof would be more seamless with those integrated panels.
My favorite standing seam roof inspiration picture of all time is the home of our interior designer, Amy Hirsch (@amyhirsch_design). She went with a pale Gavalume. She also wrapped the chimney in it, which I totally love, and we’re now stealing for our own home (with her blessing).
Siding:
We still have not totally finalized our siding choices because, let me tell you, the siding universe is a vast and overwhelming one. The white clapboard was easy peasy: we decided to go with Hardie siding. If you’re unfamiliar with siding, because why would you be familiar with siding, it’s a fiber cement composite that looks like regular clapboard. However, because it’s not wood, you don’t have to worry about rot or insects, and it doesn’t burn. And, right now it’s significantly cheaper than actual cedar clapboard (like literally half the cost, people), so it was kind of a no brainer to use. We were told by both the contractor and the architect that the smooth Hardie lap siding is the way to go, because the Hardie lap siding that is supposed to replicate real wood grain just looks super fake.
Our vertical siding has been the major challenge. We were still deciding between a few products and, last night, we finally eliminated Shou Sugi Ban siding. Originating in Japan, it’s a siding method that involves charring wood (Shou Sugi Ban translates to “burnt cedar board”). True Shou Sugi Ban waterproofs the siding and can help with fireproofing and insect-proofing wood with no staining is necessary, but can be a bit messy and ashy. While the products we were considering incorporate a wood burning technique, it’s more for aesthetics than for making the wood more durable (but you have to worry less about the flaking of charred wood). As a result, the wood still must be stained if you want the super dark look of traditional Shou Sugi Ban. Ultimately, we decided that the cost of the product — the highest of the bunch — was just not worth it when no one on our team has ever worked with it on an exterior before and couldn’t speak to its longevity in a real world build.
So what’s still in the running? When our estimates came back super super high, we thought about doing a Hardie or Boral (a more expensive product similar to Hardie, but made of fly ash, a waste product from coal products) to cut costs. But we really want to use real wood so that you could have the rustic loveliness of the grain through the wood stain. Here’s a side by side of a painted nickel gap (I believe the siding in the left photo is Boral TruExterior in a smooth finish) versus a stained nickel gap:
Both are pretty, but again, we really like the rustic look of a visible wood grain on natural wood. I also worry that painted black is a bit more of a trend than staining, and I really dislike anything super trendy in design because you tend to get sick of it. However, our contractor just showed us a Boral TruExterior sample with a textured wood grain, which looks a lot more real that its Hardie counterpart. He’s going to paint it to see how we feel about it. If we can’t replicate the organic feel with this inorganic product, we’ll likely use Alaskan Yellow Cedar (apparently the Chilean Sea Bass of wood because it’s actually a cypress wood and not cedar) and stain in a pretty dark color. Thankfully, lead times for siding aren’t quite as crazy as other things like windows, so we have a few more weeks to drive ourselves crazy decide.
Windows, Doors and Glass Elements:
We made quite a bit of changes to our window/glass picks to cut costs. However, everything stayed the same stylistically. As I mentioned before, I really love the crisp-but-traditional look of a white house with white window frame and muntins. I also love the steel or steel-look factory-style windows and doors, but sometimes it can feel overdone and heavy when it’s all over a house. So we decided to do both, inspired by this photo:
On the parts of the house with white clapboard, we’ll have Marvin double hung clad white windows and patio doors, but on the parts of the house with vertical stained wood, the windows and doors will have unpainted anodized metal frames/mullions — some casement and some fixed — for a more industrial/modern look. These were initially spec-ed to be steel, but when we were rethinking for cost reasons we switched to aluminum. Our contractor suggested Arcadia, a custom window company that manufactures anodized aluminum windows and doors. I was a little nervous about the switch because steel is much stronger structurally than aluminum, so I was concerned that the frames and muntins/mullions on the aluminum products would have to be much thicker/clunky, but that wasn’t the case at all.
In addition to the aluminum windows on the darker parts of the house, where also doing an aluminum front door on the white clapboard part of the house to tie it all together. Here’s the shop drawing of the front door, which I’m very into:
That’s all I have for now (I realize this was a crazy long post and will try to break things up in the future when I provide updates). Next up on the blog (likely in the next few weeks, since the kids are home for a few more weeks before school begins): vision board for my son’s room and kitchen ideas. While we’re many months away from completion of the interiors, I want to document the early process of all this versus where we actually land in 6 months or so.
