[Greenbuilding] sustainable siding? -- another point of view

[Sacie Lambertson]

I too have another point of view.   Seventeen years ago we built a 
beautiful small barn  (24'x36' I think) on property we then owned in 
Northern Virginia, very near Harpers Ferry where the Shenandoah and 
the Potomac intersect.   We built it entirely of raw, green, red oak 
bought from a mill in fairly nearby Leesburg.   I trucked it in on 
our little pickup,  a labor of love which eventually dented the roof 
of the cab.  We, mostly my husband, built it board and 
batten.   Until we sold the property we checked it out each year (we 
lived on it for a short time after we built it and had a wedding 
there too, but then moved abroad).  The barn boards never split, 
sagged, cracked, checked or were in any other way disturbed  from how 
they were originally placed.   Five years ago it looked exactly as it 
did the summer we built it.  The doing of it is another long 
memorable story.   Of interest only to our children's children down 
the line.  We didn't paint or stain it either.  It just stayed in 
place and looked totally great.

This too is just one perspective.  Sometimes it is better not to be 
too knowledgeable about what one is doing.

Sacie