Our Hardie® Siding Reveal

This post is in partnership with James Hardie. As always, I only share brands and products that I love, so all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting Made by Carli

It’s done, friends. Our exterior siding renovation is actually complete! And what a whirlwind this renovation has been! We are so thrilled with the results and look forward to just admiring our beautiful new Hardie® fiber cement siding for years to come!

Let’s take a quick look at some before and afters, shall we?

 

 

 

I know, this transformation is just too good! Our 76-year-old home looks (almost) brand new!  There are still a bunch of exterior projects we need to tackle, and trust me, I wanted to make them happen for this reveal, BUT I also like to keep it real, and we all know that these things don’t just happen overnight.

Let’s talk a little about the siding process!

Generally, the work for this project happened in 4 phases:

• Demo work
• Wrapping the house
• Trimming the house
• Siding the house

And to be honest the most tedious (I imagine) was the demolition part of this project.  While our home’s living area is only 1,700 sq feet, our home plus garage and breezeway is more like 3500 sq feet, so there was quite a lot of work to get done.

Demolition

For this project, we worked with a team of experts from Advanced Roofing and Siding, and boy did they have their work cut out for them!  We came to learn that our home had vinyl siding, a layer of some type of fiber board insulation, and then a layer of wood shingle siding that needed to be removed.  They also had to demo all the trim and gutters to prepare our home for new Hardie® Trim products.

Expecting The Unexpected

Unfortunately, once all of the siding was removed, they confirmed what we were afraid of: there was a Carpenter ant infestation which caused severe damage to the wood walls of our breezeway (front and back), and we also came to find that there was wood rot on 2 walls of our garage. They also uncovered that a good majority of our soffits needed to be rebuilt as they had rotted pretty badly over the years.

We are so glad that we embarked on this renovation journey because who knows what could have happened had we not found that underlying damage. There’s truly no way of knowing what lurks under siding before buying a home, and it’s especially true when you buy a home “As Is.” We are just so happy to know that going forward, our home will be better protected with quality products that will last over time.

Once everything was removed and then reframed, they began the next phase:  wrapping our home.

Hardie™ Weather Barrier

 Hardie™ Weather Barrier was put on our entire home to help protect it from water and moisture, AND to help prevent energy loss.  It’s designed to be a home’s second line of defense, and our strong fiber cement siding is our first against pests and the elements.

Trim

Once the house was protected with the Hardie™ Weather Barrier, they moved on to begin adding new Hardie® Trim products around all the doors, windows, gables and soffits. We were absolutely amazed at how beautiful the Hardie® Trim boards were in the Arctic White color. They’re so beautiful and crisp and truly elevated the look of our home before the siding was even put on!

Siding

Once all the trim was installed it was siding day! I have to be honest, with all of the hiccups due to the damage, I didn’t think this day would ever come! But, our contractor assured us that this part of the renovation would go really fast, and boy was he right!

It was so exciting seeing the siding being put on! Hardie® fiber cement siding is so beautiful, and the quality of the product is evident just by looking at it compared to vinyl. It’s thicker and so much more solid and substantial to hold up to pests and our cold New England climate.

Design

When it came to choosing a siding color and style, I was absolutely torn.  There were just too many options to choose from:

*These represent a selection of colors that are ready and available in my area, click here to see colors available in your region.

Hardie® siding and trim products come with ColorPlus® Technology, which is designed to look good longer and resist fading. We ended up choosing Aged Pewter, a medium gray color with warm undertones.

As I’ve shared on Instagram, my goal when it came to choosing a color was for our home to complement its woodsy environment, while also fitting in with the other homes in our coastal town. I believe our decision to use a mix of Hardie® Plank and Hardie® Shingle siding in Aged Pewter was a perfect compromise.

While the majority of our house was clad in Hardie® Plank siding, we added Hardie® Shingle siding to the breezeway area to break up the long length of the left side of our home and also on the patio wall area of our home. We just love how it’s added interest and texture. Shingle siding is extremely popular in New England, and I think it was a perfect nod to our coastal town.

 

 

 

 

One of the major selling points for us with this home was the outdoor living.  Now that the major work has been done, and the eyesore that was our dated, yellow vinyl siding is gone, our new siding has set the stage for a lot more exterior projects and finishing touches, like updating our foundation, creating walkways and patio areas, fine tuning our landscaping and updating our front door and garage door.

This siding renovation has motivated us to create our dream home, and we’ll be able to enjoy its lasting beauty for years to come.