Hi again- I have been looking at Benjamin Moores colors and have chosen a few you might look at. My technique for color choices is to buy several large sheets of MDF from the hardware and several paint samples that I think will work. Grab a plain white sample pot as well and just play with colors; if what you thought looked good in the shop and doesn't look good in reality, just add a bit of the white to lighten it and use the darker tones to deepen. Once you've found the color you like paint it on one of the large MDF sheets and live with it for a day or two and see how it looks morning,night, south side of building,northside of building. If the color that you like is one that you've mixed yourself, just go back to the paintshop as I'm sure B Moore would have the right shade so you can match it. Do you know the color name of the roofing? Is it IRONSTONE or MONUMENT? I'd be tempted to use that same color for the windows. My personal trick for contrast and trims is to take the main color and ask paint shop to make it up in 1/4 strength even lighter if need be. Good luck and post pictures when it's finished.

I like the look of horizontal long run iron would this be a good choice for a house which is exposed to salt bearing southerly wind. Would it be more expensive than traditional wood?

We asked a similar question when we bought our piece of bare land. We were advised that building a simple shape would reduce costs... so we've built a t shape. Single story is almost always cheaper. We have a builder who is happy to let us do a lot of work with him. We also choose to live on site, which saves us a lot in fuel. The kids and I clean up the building site most days. We've been able to separate the rubbish out between actual rubbish and recyclable material. As for cladding, we were going to do a mix of corrugated iron with plywood board and batten. But given some of the additional hassles, I don't think there's much in it cost wise. However, in saying all that, we chose to invest in long term benefits, so our house is exactly what we want and should be cheap to run. We were hoping to build for $1800 /sq m but we're still coming out at about the $2000 mark.

Distributed by Timspec, Accoya was used chosen as the ideal material to clad a show home in Auckland. Accoya was selected for the black coated weatherboards on the front section of the house, due to its durability and stability benefits. Because of Accoya’s modification technique it is the ideal wood for external cladding such as this. Generally, problems can occur with darker coatings on cladding, due to shrink and swell being exasperated by the solar gain. But, Accoya wood’s superior dimensional stability negates this problem and maintenance intervals are dramatically extended. The cladding needed to be aesthetically pleasing as well as highly durable in order to withstand the extreme climates in New Zealand. Accoya was also chosen due to its rot resistant benefits and its ability to deter insects in these types of environments.