The Shake House That Stayed a Shake House
Before & After
About This Project
This home hides on a forested hillside in south Bellingham behind a terraced garden its owners clearly love. For decades it wore cedar-look shake — the texture that gives Northwest houses under tall firs their character, and the maintenance burden that comes with it. By the time we walked it, the shake was chalky, patched, and done.
The owners took our bid in early July and approved it the next day. What they were clear about from the start: the house should stay a shake house. No flattening it into lap siding to save money.
The Cheaper Option They Turned Down
We put the savings on the table anyway — the proposal included an option to run HardiePlank lap on every wall instead of the shingle-and-lap combination, at a meaningfully lower price. They declined it, and we think they were right: some houses lose themselves in translation. So the feature faces got straight-edge HardieShingle in Khaki Brown, the tall walls got HardiePlank at a seven-inch reveal in the same color, and the house kept the layered, wood-textured look it was born with — in fiber cement that will never curl, split, or ask for stain.
The trim went the opposite direction, and here's the part that surprises people: the pre-finished Timber Bark HardieTrim option actually cost less than primed trim plus a field-paint service. A darker, factory-baked trim color, standing against the Khaki walls — chosen on its merits, and cheaper than the alternative. Not every upgrade costs more.
The Details
Under the surface, the standard system: Tyvek across bare walls, flash-taped openings, Z-flashing above every window and door, custom Hardie light blocks behind the fixtures, a joint flashing behind every plank seam, and OSI Quad MAX everywhere caulk belongs — never at the seams, per James Hardie's instructions.
The chimney got re-wrapped in matching lap with Timber Bark corners beneath its copper-patina cap, the rear deck's fascia was dressed in pre-finished HardieTrim at no charge, and the roof fascias and inner garage door trim were sprayed in Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint so nothing on the house wears the old era's finish.
The Finished Look
Khaki Brown reads like aged cedar from the street and like a new house up close — which is exactly the trick this project was hired to pull off. Under the firs, behind the lavender and the bottle tree, the shake house is still a shake house. It just stopped needing anyone to worry about it.
