Building our first home - help!

Hi everyone! My boyfriend and I are in the very early process of building our first house (yay!) My boyfriend has been an electrician/on construction for the past 10 years so a lot of what people would pay a GC for, we know we can do ourselves so that saves a lot for labor. We have discussed and have been planning as much as possible but two things keep coming up as we aren't sure how to go about handling it due to the type of house we are planning to build (it's an A-frame house). So, my two questions are as followed:

  1. Because it's an A-frame, we wanted inside to be tongue-and-groove wood panels since we like the natural wood look with a metal roof. Which type of insulating to do is where we are struggling because we live in NC and are looking at counties that are between 4A and 5A climate (at least 38 r-value). Is there a way to have tongue-and-groove panels inside without dry-wall? Our research has shown us options to not include dry-wall but that's for traditional houses with or without an attic and not an A-frame. I hate the idea of dry-walling and putting tongue-and-groove over it. Seems like a lot of product just to be covered up but then again, that's why I'm here asking because I don't know a thing 😂

  2. We are considering black, cedar shakes for the front of the house to further add a touch of texture. I couldn't find anywhere the price range for cedar shakes. I love the properties of cedar shakes (water resistant, eco friendly, last a long time, etc.) but I get the impression they are normally expensive. I say normally as in pre-COVID price increase. So, my second question is tying in current wood prices, would it be incredibly expensive to use cedar shakes over wood panels on the front and back of the house?

Here's some facts that may(?) help: °The house will be 2,000 sq/ft °It will have two levels: two bedrooms on the ground floor and the master bedroom on the top floor °We initially are considering large windows but depending on prices for those (we actually are planning to use acrylic vs glass...again thinking sustainability) we may not go big there and just use the cedar shakes and have more sky lights

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!