A Referral in Boothbay Blue

About This Project

Some projects come from ads. The best ones come from family. Not long after we finished a panel-to-lap re-side for a Ferndale homeowner, his family sent us up the hill to their mother-in-law's place — a brick-wainscoted rambler with a valley view, tired tan lap siding, and window trim that had been patched with raw lumber where the weather kept winning.

Kristina wrote the scope, and the plan was straightforward on paper: strip the old lap, keep the brick, keep the view, and re-dress the house in pre-finished Hardie. Then the tear-off planning turned up what the old siding had been hiding, and the project became something more interesting than a color change.

The Wall Under the Wall

Behind the old siding, most of this home's walls were sheathed in fiberboard — a cardboard-like panel that was common once, braces nothing, and isn't an approved substrate for fiber cement. It was also the likely reason the old siding never sat flat. So before any HardiePlank went up, the whole exterior got real bones: 7/16-inch OSB sheathing across every wall, nailed through to the studs.

One honest detail from the estimate: a few sections of the house already had plywood at the corners, so we cut the sheet count in the price rather than charging for walls that didn't need it. Rot found along the way was repaired at no charge. New Tyvek HomeWrap went over all of it, every window and door was flash-taped, and only then did the siding start.

Boothbay Blue Over Brick

The color is Boothbay Blue from the James Hardie Statement Collection — a soft slate-blue, factory-baked ColorPlus, in Cedarmill texture at a seven-inch reveal — with Arctic White HardieTrim in Rustic grain at the windows, doors, and corners. The original brick wainscot stayed exactly where it was; the new lap lands on it cleanly, and the iron courtyard gates the owner loves close against fresh blue instead of faded tan. Behind the finish: a bearskin joint flashing at every plank seam, custom Hardie blocks behind every light fixture — each one z-flashed — metal Z-flashing over the openings, OSI Quad MAX at windows, doors, and corners, and not a bead of caulk at the plank seams, exactly as James Hardie's instructions require.

Two details cost the owner nothing. Her older pocket-style windows are notorious for drafts, so before the trim went on, we packed backer rod into the accessible joints around them — a hidden draft barrier that brings old windows as close to modern performance as they can get without replacement. And the stained wood soffits overhead were never touched: that warm, old-growth ceiling under the eaves is a finish that's genuinely hard to come by today, and painting over it would have been a loss. Against the blue, it glows.

The Finished Look

From the street it reads as a different house: slate blue over warm brick, white lines at every opening, wood soffits catching the low sun, and the valley spread out behind the gable.

This was the second home in one family to get the full SWV treatment in as many years. That's the measure we care about most — not that a homeowner hired us once, but that they watched the work closely enough to hand our name to their own mother.