We're going to get the pre-painted Hardie Plank siding put on our house and we're having a very difficult time keeping this within a reasonable budget. Although my husband and I are big DIYers, this is not a project we want to take on ourselves -- in addition to installing the Hardie Plank, the project includes stripping 2 layers of siding off the house then redoing the whole thing with Hardie Plank. So here's my question... What should we use for trim? The overwhelming consenus from the contractors we've talked to is that Azek is the way to go. But I've also had some recommend simply wrapping the trim in pvc-coated aluminum. I'm not too keen on the idea of having the trime wrapped, but bottom line is that it's a heck of a lot cheaper. In fact I just talked to the contractor that I want to use to see how we could knock the price down and by simply swapping the pvc/alum wrap for Azek trim, the cost dropped $3100. It's a big savings that gets us right into our budget range, but I still have doubts about making that tradeoff. Would the pvc/alum wrapped trime look okay next to Hardie plank? Or would this be a huge mistake? Any opinions are appreciated.

A few years ago we scraped, sanded, etc our exterior and then primered and painted it white. It was a lot of work and the next spring it was coming off. We repainted areas with the same result. Some places it comes off in sheets, others it just looks bad chipping sort of. It is coming off the areas that were down to the bare cedar lap siding. Our house was built in the early 1900s. I have noticed wherever we have replaced siding the paint looks wonderful. Is there something else we need to do to the old cedar to have better success? At this point I hate to put any more work and money without a solution.