Hey, hey, y’all! It’s time for all the exterior details for Building 101! I’ll be going over our board and batten, wood accents, metal and shingle roofing, roof pitch, gutters, lights, and all the small details in between you might or might not think of! So let’s dive into all the details! If you are interested in the windows, you can check out this Building 101 post over Windows, Doors, and Trim.
Exterior Materials
Our house is completely wrapped in James Hardie siding. It is the cement board panels are textured. We bought the 8 foot panels, but because we have 10 foot ceilings everywhere, we had a horizontal seam around the entire exterior. I could NOT have that, my OCD was taking over! So I asked to have a 2X2 board put over the seam. It helped give the exterior a little more dimension than just vertical lines, and loved the final look! The 2X2 boards are spaced apart 13 inches (from inside to inside).
I wanted also help break up the vertical lines with some horizontal siding on the gables up top! It is also James Hardie siding. This is the only space we have horizontal siding around the house.
Paint
Picking out white paint was a LOT harder than I thought it was going to be. I never knew there were so many to pick from! I found my top two or three favorite exteriors on Instagram and asked them what their white paint was. Most of them said Sherwin Williams Alabaster or Pure White. I went with Alabaster, which, in my opinion, is the perfect warm white!! We also painted the garage door too. The white garage door was too white next to the Alabaster.
Exterior Details- Wood Accents
All of our exterior wood is Cedar wood. It is the best type of wood that holds up in our crazy Texas weather! It I put in cedar trusses in each gable of our home. and there are cedar posts for the front porch, and back porch. We originally stained it with a clear coat, because everything we tested out, came out very dark.
Although, we liked it at first, we had to re-stain everything after just one year. It soaked up into the wood and faded extremely fast from Texas heat and sun. So we had it re-stained a little darker. The painters didn’t ask what stained and assumed the stain color. They used Minwax Golden Pecan, which was originally really dark, but once it soaked in, it was really pretty and showed the wood grain perfectly.
**Just a quick note about stain. The type of wood you use matters how the stain color comes out! So yes, Golden Pecan is very light, but Cedar is a very dark wood. This stain would look completely different if it was on pine or knotty alder wood. **
Exterior Details- Roofing
I wanted black roofing, but it wasn’t offered in the brand that my contractor purchased. We looked around and it was all very expensive. So we decided to go with the darkest we could. We GAF roofing in the color Charcoal. Which, next to the white paint, it looks really close to black!
For the metal roofing, I don’t really know what brand it is. I just told my builder I wanted matte black metal roofing. And that’s what I got! 🙂
Roof Pitch
Our roof pitch is a 10/12. Don’t have much else to add to that! 🙂
Gutters
I didn’t have much thought on gutters until I was asked to pick them out. There are times when your builder will ask for something, and you are like “wait, I never thought about that decision…” So since Alabaster is a warm white, I didn’t want to get white gutters because I was scared you would see the differences in whites. I was very nervous about getting black, but I LOVE the contrast and how it kind of frames the house.
Exterior Details- Lighting
We bought almost all of our exterior lighting from Amazon, except for the little sconces by the front doors and back doors. Our flood lights can be also switch to be regular or motion sensor. The up lights our electrician actually bought, so I’m not sure where he purchased those from. Our back porch chandelier isn’t actually an “outdoor” light, but since it is under a covered patio and in an area where the rain doesn’t reach, our electrician said it would be fine. We haven’t had any problems, and I love the vibe it gives when its on! Sharing images below, then all their links!
Below are links to the lights on Amazon. My foyer light is no longer available, but I did find one that looks almost identical!
You can find the outdoor sconces that are by our front and back doors, here.
Next up for Building 101
That about sums it all up for exterior details for this building 101 post. Next post, I will be talking about all things flooring. I’ll share our floor selection, how we decided on the type of flooring, the direction of the flooring, and how it’s been holding up!
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