I put metal siding on a house last year and the metal cost less than the vinyl would have. I wouldn't have thought that possible. The fabricator was local so no doubt that helped. It would be worthwhile to check into what's available to you locally. It will take time to research but it may pay off well.

Sorry if this is in the wrong spot, but I couldn't work out how to post my question. We are building a beach house and my husband wants to use this cladding on the outside, (horizontal), and he wants to use vertical cladding on the inside, BUT the floors are vinyl planks which will run across the house from side to side, and there will be a deck outside which will have planks as well. I am thinking this will all be too many lines. Your image looks great. What have you planned for the interior?

The issue is not so much the cladding material, but rather the articulation of the extended building form. This could be a simultaneously exciting, interesting and sympathetic extension utilising shingle cladding that wouldn't necessarily reference Hampton's. If there's anything too Hamptons going on here it's the small proportioned windows with the external shutters that give it a bit of a "dollhouse"popped on the top look. You've got a stunning beautiful home frontage, but the extension form is kind of sticking out/up the back and the fenestration looks out of balance by being perfectly symmetrical. Federation architecture is not symmetrical like the Victorian era predecessors, rather it is an asymmetric compositional balance that in your case should be recognised and countered appropriately with the design of the extension. When selecting appropriate extended cladding material it should be working towards texturally balancing the building and being complimentary overall. Professional recommendation you revisit the articulation of the upper extension, at the very least loosening up the fenestration with more glazing and potentially a more complex roof form with a smaller projecting gable (offset) as a reference to the frontage. The cladding choice becomes less critical, and shingle texture that ties in the roofing texture could work well. Weatherboard is bringing something new in, and if you go flush panel without a more contemporary design and articulation it will look wrong Good luck PD :) www.pauldistefanodesign.com

Probably 15 years ago I did a shop front in what I think was called Engineered Stone , and I think it was made in China . Dreamers reference seems to be actual stone , the stuff I used seemed to be essentially stone ground up with filler and cement , and poured into moulds . Basically , the panels were 100cm x 50cm , and the pattern repeated every panel , and then there were internal and external corners available too , as well as sills . The stuff I used ( its still in place ! ) looked pretty authentic , but tap it and it has an almost hollow sound to it . Does yours 'feel' real ?