All new siding?

I had not thought that I would consider spending money on the siding. The walls are in great shape, thanks to the 26" overhang all around. But I picked up a Hardie brochure at the home show and I started thinking about it.

1. I've never liked the chair rail at the house's waist, nor the vertical over horizontal pattern.
2. There are some damaged areas that need repair. Any new windows will need patches, and they really hacked it up for BR3 and the skinny window out of BA1.
3. I was planning to re-paint the house; fresh paint always looks good, and I could choose a better LRV on the north-facing curb side.
4. The walls contain a 1/2" sandwich of kraft paper with rock wool inside. It's good for R-2.5.

After seeing how my neighbor added huge value to his ugly house with a new roof, I'm thinking...maybe my house needs new siding instead of new paint. It would be nice to tell a prospective buyer--see that brand new siding? We put insulation under it all around, and spruced up the 75-year-old structure at the same time.

Hardie makes a cement fiber siding with integral color. I'm thinking a light color horizontal lap, consistently, around new construction and old.

Lowe's sells the planks (7.25" x 12') for $14.44, or just about $2/SF. So, maybe $6 installed and trimmed out? Seems like something I could do with the help of a laborer. 4x8 smooth sheets are $55.44, or $1.74/SF. 

RemodelingExpense.com says it's $6.71 for Good, $8.78 for Better, installed.

Maybe forget the insulation and install the siding right over the existing siding? That's a lot of material to haul away, otherwise.

Looks like the vicinity of 2000 SF of exterior walls, so $13,420 to $17,560 to "re-siding" the house.

Maybe vertical looks better. Maybe the 4x8 sheets work--a Meier grid look (like the Getty) and/or shoji screens. I don't know where we'll end up, but it's something to think about.

I don't know if I can trust Remodeling Expense's numbers, but they say exterior painting a 2000 SF (siding) house would be $4950-$6200. 

I'll just leave this here...