My clients currently live a few thousand miles away from the site. They have rented a house across the street for the month of August so they can spend some time soaking up some of the nuances of the site to help make final decisions. I plan on visiting them and helping stake out the footprint so they can get a better sense of it. In the fall we will do the construction documents as they plan to build next year.
The sidings, colours etc have not been decided. What I'm thinking is that the primary siding be panels of ship-lapped boards. The owner has expressed an interest in using recycled barn boards. Most of what is available here would have been board sheathing that on a barn would have had wood shingles. The boards typically would have been fairly low quality with lots of knot holes and bits of bark etc. I think I can come up with a nice way of using such materials by creating modular panels that get hung of the building as rain-screen panels.
The roof is likely to be metal. Perhaps zinc or maybe just inexpensive barn roofing. There has been talk of doing the main floor as polished concrete. The large bank of storage along the main floor bedroom will likely have traditional shoji screens.
It is likely that we can get away with a horizontally structured railing system. The site is in a very rural area. To get a building permit we likely just need to submit a drawing showing the footprint, location of septic, the well, and the driveway. I spoke with the development officer and was surprised to learn that there are almost no regulations regarding what we can or can't do on the site. We could for instance cantilever a building out over a cliff if we wanted -- there is no applicable setback from the top of an oceanfront bank. There are some modest setback requirements from the property boundaries, road, and high-water mark but little else in regards to regulations (other than septic & water related ones). During construction it is likely the only inspections we'll have will be by the local power utility who won't power you up if things aren't to their standards. Its so easy-going here I sometimes feel like we are the wild west. Oh, but if you want to put up a windmill here you'll be buried in regulations & approvals. 
Technically things like railings are required to be to our national building code but in a rural area there is zero enforcement. I would never do anything that would recklessly endanger a client -- in the case of this client they do not have young children so the climbing hazard of a horizontal railing system is not a very serious risk. I also add that unlike most people building houses here, this client has professional help including a structural engineer.
One other interesting thing, my client has a source for windows that are handmade using wood re-milled from old utility poles that have retired from service. If they are used that will be cool. Only once have I done a job that handmade windows --- they were beautiful.
Regards, Ross
