Night Gray Above the Marina
Before & After
About This Project
This two-story sits on the high side of Anacortes, close enough to the water that a drone over the backyard catches the marina and the San Juans in the same frame. Its original vinyl — gray-blue lap below, paneling above — had reached the stage where sun and years show everywhere at once.
The owner did his homework the unhurried way. He took our bid in the dead of winter, sat with it through spring, and signed in the middle of summer — same scope, same numbers, no pressure campaign from us in between. A good bid should be able to wait for a good decision.
Factory Finish Over Field Paint
The proposal offered two finishing routes: primed Hardie painted on site, or ColorPlus — James Hardie's baked-on factory finish. He chose the factory route, and picked Night Gray from the Statement Collection with Arctic White HardieTrim, a pairing that reads almost blue at dusk and slate in full sun.
The build followed the system we use on every re-side: tear-off to the sheathing, a fresh weather-resistive barrier with every window and door flash-taped, metal Z-flashing above the openings, a joint flashing tucked behind every plank seam, and OSI Quad MAX where caulk belongs — never at the plank seams, which stay open to drain the way the manufacturer intends. The brick accents at the garage stayed, the porch columns were wrapped in white, and the Cedarmill texture carries the wood-grain look the neighborhood expects with none of the wood's appetite for maintenance.
The Finished Look
Some houses we photograph from a ladder. This one earned the drone: Night Gray walls under a wide Anacortes sky, white lines at every opening, and Fidalgo Bay stretched out behind the ridge. The before photo below is the house the neighborhood knew for years. The after is what it looks like when the finish comes out of a factory oven instead of a paint sprayer — and stays that way.
