I am with you on reducing the maintenance. We bought this brick house with the brick all the way up the (gables?), I did not want to have to fool with painting and pressure washing them. All I have to pressure wash now are the gutters, and garage doors.

When we were building our house, I wanted simple aluminum or whatever plastic/acrylic siding. I was overruled. We got "T-111" vertical board wood siding, which has a sort of rough surface. A Maintenance NIGHTMARE. Plus, it was stained redwood color, not painted and lately it's been impossible to get the right kind/color. The garage end of the house ( a rancher) goes up two stories (garage under house) so you can imagine what it was like trying to get the siding stained there... we had to have full scaffolding put up first. As soon as I got the $$$ I had that end stone faced and I love it. No maitenance at all. Someday I'd like to get the whole house (more or less) faced with stone as well, but it is $$$.