I keep forgetting that things are different in the rest of the country than they are here in South Florida, but when I read that you were considering T111 instead of HardiPlank, a horrible shudder went through my spine. Down here, T111 is good for about 20 years, max, and less than that on the "weather" wall. I just got through re-siding a 24' x 50' commercial building with HardiPlank over top the T111, and the South wall had already been replaced about 10 years ago. My daughter's house has also had HardiPlank installed over the often-patched T111, and my son's rental house has had the bottom 30" of the T111 replaced with new T111 all around the house, and a cedar 1"x 8" trim board installed to cover the joint. Most of the T111 houses around here have been similarly patched or re-sided, often with HardiPlank but also with aluminum siding, vinyl siding, or stucco on wire mesh. Anything but the dreaded T111!
My current house does have some T111 on the back porch, but it's cedar T111, at least 50% more money, and doesn't rot like the pine T111.
I'd really be interested in what issues or Cons you have heard about HardiPlank; it's all Pros so far, with me. It's warranted for 50 years of exterior use, it doesn't rot, it doesn't attract termites, it won't burn and it takes paint beautifully. The only thing I've found wrong is that cutting it with a saw creates a lot of fine dust, but we used so much of it, I bought one of the Snapper electric shears for cutting it.