Custom Orb looks great. But.....your flashings and trims can cost a lot of money and labour to finish well. If you use it in a few select areas that need little or no flashings then it works better. It becomes even more of a 'cool' feature then as well. Installing it vertical rather than horizontal could be much easier to install as well. We cladded our house in it about 7 years ago. While it looks great I probably wouldn't do it again due to the cost (and mucking around..) and also the fact that a change of colour isn't a paint brush away...... My preference would be FC sheet with battens over the joins, a bit of Custom Orb in a few selected areas that are hard to maintain/paint/etc and good old face brick. Recycled bricks rather than new would be a nice feature as well. Face brick needs little maintenance and doesn't damage easily from kids running into with bikes, etc..

White Windows would be great - would give definition and break up brickwork For garage, black against brown brick is a bit harsh - just built thought black Windows but went white with brown brick and ironstone garage door and red front door!! But manor red and ironstone colours match flecks of colours in my bricks

Love the black/charcoal look as accent colour (with brown undertone to complement bricks). if you could sand back some of the wood and stain it, maybe paint some of it black/charcoal to break it up would look amazing. If the wood does not stand up to sanding (no grain or not made for raw wood look) then you could add some panels to break it up/add texture not too much black - weathertex is a material I've used recently and can highly recommend.

I'll stick my neck out and say I love painted brick, especially when not in overwhelming proportions, so I think your house would lend itself well to this treatment. I can see the brick on your house painted in Surfmist - I believe it would totally transform the feel of your house. I love what you've done so far. If you do paint the brick though I would paint the garage door the same dark grey of the wood trim. Jon n Kate Miller are right - if you paint brick you have to be committed. Also don't take short cuts on surface preparation but if done properly there's no reason it shouldn't last as long as any other painted surface.