I am about to redo the siding on my house in Montauk NY.  I have done a lot of research on cedar siding (red, yellow, white) and want the “Cape Cod / Nantucket” look of the weathered grey shingle.

It seems to me like the best bet would be something like a Maibec factory coated (with Cabot’s bleaching oil) Nantucket Grade (A/1/Blue) R&R white cedar shingle.

However, I am being told by my local siding contractor that white cedar is not the way to go and he suggested yellow cedar or red cedar with bleaching oil.  I want as low a maintenance a house as possible but because labor costs are so great out here, I want something that is going to last. 

Also, a lot of the very expensive homes out here all have red cedar siding – but these are multi-million homes that there is a huge snob factor involved.

What is your advice?

Also, I currently have Andersen terratone windows, with no window trim.  If I did white cedar shingles, does it make sense to trim out the windows with untreated white cedar to match the weathering of the siding?  My other alternatives are to just use the andersen window casings as the “trim” or to install actual painted trim (which I do not want to do).  Thoughts on this?

Thanks so much,
Ian in Montauk