Evening Blue and Nine New Windows

About This Project

This single-story home in Anacortes came to us with pale lap siding, dark green shutters, and a corner beside the front step where the old siding had cracked and swollen. The owner chose a full re-side in Evening Blue from the James Hardie Statement Collection with Arctic White trim, and added nine new windows to the same project.

Two things were settled before any siding came off. The City of Anacortes requires a permit for siding and window replacement, so we obtained it and covered the fee ourselves. And because the home was built before 1978, we tested it for lead paint first; the result came back negative. Siding & Window Vault is Lead-Safe Certified by the State of Washington, which the law requires for this kind of work on a home of this age whether or not lead turns up.

Why the Windows Went In With the Siding

A re-side is the best time to replace windows, because the wall around every opening is already exposed. The nine old windows came out the way a full-frame replacement should go: exterior trim off, the fasteners pulled from the old nail fin, and the opening cleaned back. Each new Milgard V400 Tuscany window, white vinyl inside and out and ordered to the existing openings, went in with flex wrap at the sill, sealant behind its nail fin, and flashing tape over every fin, lapped from the bottom up so any water that gets behind the siding sheds back out.

The top of a window is where replacements most often go wrong, so every one of these is trimmed in HardieTrim, and wherever siding runs above a window, metal Z-flashing caps the head trim with a small weep gap above it. Water drains out instead of sitting on the trim. And because the siding, trim, flashing, and caulking around each window all went on new, nothing had to be patched back into an old wall.

It is also why windows replaced during a re-side typically cost 20–35% less than the same windows replaced on their own: the tear-off, disposal, and trim work are already part of the siding job.

Pre-Finished Siding, Painted Eaves

The siding is HardiePlank in the Cedarmill texture at a 7-inch reveal, pre-finished in Evening Blue, with 3.5-inch HardieTrim in Arctic White at the corners, windows, and doors. The old siding was torn off and hauled away. Under the new plank: Tyvek HomeWrap over the walls, flashing tape at the openings, and the studs marked so every plank is nailed into framing. There is a joint flashing behind every seam and no caulk at the plank joints, which is how James Hardie specifies it, and how we install as a James Hardie Elite Contractor. OSI Quad MAX seals where the siding meets trim. Any sheathing rot repair was included in the bid at no charge.

The siding and trim came pre-finished, so they needed no painting on site, but the parts of the house that are not siding did. The soffits and eaves were power-washed, masked, and sprayed in Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint to match the Evening Blue walls, and the roof fascia was painted to match the Arctic White trim. The conduit that runs along the driveway wall to the meter was painted to match too, so it disappears into the siding. The green shutters did not go back up.

The Finished Look

Deep blue walls, a white frame around every window, and eaves that carry the wall color up to the roofline, so the house reads as one color with a clean white outline. The detail we like best is the smallest one: the corner beside the front step, where cracked, swollen siding used to meet the concrete, is now a straight line of new plank and trim.

The City of Anacortes inspected the finished job, and it passed on the first visit.