I'm at my end game and it's vinyl

I love our saltbox house, built almost entirely by my husband in a style we like: a simple classic design with an open, modern interior.

Even though the architectural rendering showed my dream house clad with cedar shake, I imagined it in sand-colored vinyl siding and it appealed to me just as much. Maybe that's a Midwest thing. Or maybe I just have bad taste or bad eyes. But I always felt our siding was attractive as well as practical. It certainly was in line with our budget and in sync with our vision of a matching house and outbuilding for an office, workshop and photo darkroom.

Construction started in 2003 in the middle of a 10-acre wooded parcel near a Lake Michigan coastal town called Cross Village, Mich. We had just found out we were expecting our son and it was time to upgrade from our rustic tiny cabin. My husband built that cedar A-frame with a sleeping loft in a week back in 1996 and hooked up one utility: a phone line with a dial-up modem. With a kid on the way, we figured electricity, running water and space for a crib would come in as handy as the internet.

As cautious new parents with careers in journalism and photography, we played it safe in terms of the initial investment on building materials for our new home. We went with vinyl siding to save on cladding and put the money saved toward lots of skylights, French doors, 6-foot windows and a pair of octagon windows to flank the wood stove.

We weren't alone in our thinking. Vinyl siding had been the No. 1 cladding choice in America since 1994. Installation of this affordable, durable, maintenance-free material peaked at 40 percent of all new homes in 2002, about the time we were looking at it. A slow decline followed.

Vinyl siding was put on 27 percent of new single-family houses in 2017, which is the latest figure available from the U.S. Census Bureau. After vinyl comes stucco at 24 percent, brick at 22 percent, fiber cement at 20 percent, wood at 5 percent and other materials like concrete block, stone and aluminum siding at 2 percent.

While our siding and window plans came together nicely, other projects went over budget — say what, we need a 300-foot-deep well? — or took way too much time. That'll happen when the building site is hundreds of miles away and life throws curveballs related to health, the recession, the slow rollout of rural high-speed internet, etc.

Finally, 15 years later, the house is pretty much done — are they ever really all done? — and as of Jan. 31, we're no longer seasonal residents. That baby is in ninth grade now and thriving at his new school academically and athletically. The great public schools are one of the reasons we built here. So much for making the transition by kindergarten, but we did make it.

Next door to our house, my husband makes photos and teaches various analog and digital processes in a sand-colored, vinyl-sided pole barn funded through two Kickstarters and constructed with more sweat equity. I love the matching French doors.

I'm sure some architectural and design professionals are recoiling in horror picturing our homestead with two structures bearing "hideous" siding seams and J-channels. They might be relieved it's nestled deep in a forest of towering beeches, maples and poplars far from public view.

Vinyl siding has come a long way since we installed it 15 years ago. Does it really deserve the same criticism and disdain? Today's buyers have a wider selection of colors, profiles and performance features, including multiple attachment points that resist winds more than 110 mph and advanced UV coatings that resist fading and keep dark colors vibrant. One brand has a vinyl siding product with an expanded polystyrene foam backing for added insulation. It contains both post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled content PVC resin — and it resembles a rough cedar finish.

Despite the innovations, some planning officials have aesthetics issues with vinyl siding. There are restrictions and bans on using the material for new housing in cities and counties in Georgia and Tennessee. Georgia state lawmakers are taking on the issue with a committee recently approving a bill that would prohibit local governments from imposing "architectural ordinances" on new home construction.

"How far do we go with that to say what you can and can't do with your property?" Georgia state Rep. Vance Smith, a Republican from Pine Mountain, asked colleagues.

"Individuals should be able to choose the design, color and using the approved materials in the state of Georgia; they should be able to build their home — I guess their dream home — the way they would like," he added.

In 2015, North Carolina state legislators passed a similar measure. It says local governments can't enact ordinances that control design and aesthetics of one- and two-family houses, including what type of siding can be used. Local builders and the industry's trade group had pushed for that change, raising concerns about private property rights, affordable housing and free market economics.

But home rule is held in high regard in Georgia, and the local governments could dig in their heels. The Vinyl Siding Institute trade group says around Atlanta, some cities and counties impose architectural standards for exterior building color, exterior cladding materials, roofs, porches, architectural ornamentation, and location and style of windows and doors, including garage doors. Brookhaven reportedly is one place that requires four-sided brick facades.

Our saltbox wouldn't meet those community standards because we didn't spend more on the siding. I understand local officials, architects, design professionals and developers have visions, too, but the need for affordable housing is growing.

At last month's International Builders' Show, Robert Dietz, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, explained what is happening.

"While solid job growth and rising household formations are fueling a demand for housing, home price appreciation has outpaced wage gains, putting a damper on housing affordability," Dietz said. "To keep housing moving forward, policymakers at all levels of government should make it a priority to address affordability concerns that are hurting homebuyers and homebuilders alike."

NAHB has made housing affordability a top issue for 2019. The trade group says a limited supply of land, shortage of skilled labor and rising fees are all contributing to higher prices.

Regulatory requirements alone account for 25 percent of the cost of constructing a single-family home and 30 percent of the cost of a multifamily unit, according to an NAHB analysis.

"A lot of the cost of the home is in place before you do anything. It's the permitting and the land and all the approvals and taxes. A lot of people don't realize how fast that adds up before construction is even started. It's a hidden cost, and it's growing," Scott Szwejbka, vice president of exteriors for Royal Building Products, told me at the International Builders' Show.

Those costs don't add to the joy or benefit of the home either, he noted.

"They don't give you a better sewer or a better permit. All of our customers would much rather put the money into the home rather than the preparation fees but that's the way it is," Szwejbka said. "To keep homes affordable, builders need to figure out how to build them less expensively, and there's nothing more cost-effective to put on a home than vinyl siding. We actually see a potential uptick in our wall share in vinyl siding because of the demographic move to find affordable housing for the millennials."

Millennials entered the workforce at the height of the recession, and many are saddled with student loans, stagnant wages, high health care deductibles and fewer steady jobs.

If vinyl siding fits their budget and lifestyle, why pull the welcome mat on them, too?

Kavanaugh is a Plastics News staff reporter. Follow her on Twitter @CatherineKav.