We are making our final decisions on both shingles and siding. We are leaning towards the Certainteed Independence line, although I completely fell in love with the Grand Manor line. But, budget considerations made us decide against the fake slate (which I REALLY love) so why spend a lot on asphalt shingles? Because of the slope of the roof, the roof is really only noticeable from across the street. So, we're saving some money by picking a less expensive shingle (or 'shangle' according to Certainteed, whatever that means).
Certainteed has a cool function on their website where you can pick a house that looks like yours and basically try on different shingles. I've spent more time on this site than I should have over the last few days. We also went to a local roof showroom on Wednesday but it's still hard to tell what the shingles will look like on your house. Our current roof is just so bad, I find it distracting but I think any new roof will look so much better anyway... but I want to get it right of course. I am sure this should be on the list of things that only I will notice. I am leaning towards charcoal colored shingles because we want to have black shutters. Unfortunately there area about 4 shades of gray/charcoal to choose from! Right now, I am leaning towards the charcoal black option because it's classic for the style of house and it's not straight black because of the type of shingle has a lot of raised details.
We are also making the final decision on the color of our HardiePlank lap siding. Again, I think I am going to choose a darker option which will lessen the effect of the difference between the brick and the siding. Also, our trim color is tan so there won't be a stark contrast like there would be with white trim. So, we are leaning towards the Cedarmill 8.25" (7" exposure). I'm making my final decision between Autumn Tan, Woodstock Brown, and Timber Bark. I plan to go and look at the options tomorrow in the sunlight. I don't want the color to be too close to the trim color but I am concerned about it being too dark (although that may be fine ultimately). Hardie also has some cool features on their website so you can see your options both on your style home and on actual homes (some for sale!).
Both the shingles and the siding take about 3 weeks so I need to decide on those options very soon since the framing will be done in another 2 weeks or so hopefully.
