Trying to deSIDE the siding...

Is that a corny title or what?  But it's true nonetheless...we are trying to decide on siding color for our "miracle" house.  Right now I feel it will be a miracle just to get siding on the house, since it has sat in it's Lowe's house wrap glory for almost 2 years!!  I know...that's bad.  And if you want to know why we waited so long, check out this earlier post Where we are today...Part 4.

No more looking back on the "should have's"...we are moving forward.  The most important thing is...we are doing it NOW.  This is what we would like to use on our house:

This crosshead above the windows.  Trim will be white.

Ivory siding.

Estate Gray shingles

AZEK Cornerboards

AZEK Skirt Board

Since our house was built in 1868, there are certain character features that we would like to replicate.  Nothing can take place of the original trim that we had to remove, but we are going to try to add back some details so the house looks like the historic home it is.  My inspiration photo is one that I found online, and I posted it at the top of my blog.

I am not one for crazy colors on a house...I like a more refined and timeless look.  We wanted to go with a linen colored siding, but it looked two white against white trim.  So we went with Ivory instead.  Not too tan or taupe, and not too yellow.  My husband detests is not fond of having to painting a house every 7 - 10 years, so we are going with vinyl siding.  I wish we had limitless funds to go with more expensive wood siding or cement board, etc...but it isn't a reality for us right now.  Besides, I would rather spend extra money on the window trim.

We also want to add back the white skirt board going around the bottom and top of the house...to frame it out nicely.  Plus we will go with wide corner boards the same width as the skirting.  We will be adding in some corbels around the porch posts and underneath the overhang of the house.   They will look something like this:

http://www.architecturaldepot.com

This is a similar design to what was on the house originally.  Remember this photo?

I want to also add back the crown molding trim up towards the top of the roof line, on each corner.  Like this photo shows:

The crown molding and the corbels can be installed later, as we are able to afford them.  The most important thing to us right now is getting the window trim installed and the siding hung on the house...the finer details will come over time.

Anyone else having trouble picking out siding color?  What color did you decide on?  Please share!