A clear coat of stain? I'm not sure what that means. If you want to put a color to your wood that isn't a paint, then you need to stain it. Minwax is good for this, comes in many colors. After the wood is stained and this has dried, you can seal it and finish it. This is usually done with a polyurethane, two coats at least with sanding in between coats. The first coat of poly will raise the grain of the wood and make it rough. After sanding, the wood should remain pretty smooth. As for filling the holes, you can buy putty for this that is premixed. Minwax makes some and also the Color Putty Corporation. If you are not happy with the match that comes in the premixed cans, you can mix two colors together to get a better match. As for the weather, just be sure to stop working around 3 or 4 so that things have some time to dry before the colder temps arrive. Sticking a fan in the area to keep the air moving around always helps with drying.

Thanks very much, paintguy for the information. Good idea about stopping early and using a fan. Would you also use a space heater?

A space heater will help too with the drying, but really if you are reaching 60 degrees during the day and you quit early, you should be fine. I even am less worried when my products are oil based because they won't freeze and will continue to dry when the temps dip below 50, even though they may dry at a slower rate. Winter isn't here yet!

I am eyeing the weather and Monday may be my best day if I can have all the decisions and materials purchased and ready to go. Now they're talking about having frost on the ground with a temp of 35 Monday morning, but I am an early riser and I could get a space heater going early and by 10a maybe it will be the right temperature there. The area faces East too, and it's supposed to be a sunny day and temps on Monday night are not supposed to go lower than 45 degrees, then it starts getting rainy the rest of the week, so I'm going to start on Monday by doing the trim and I'm just going to have to hope that I'll get another window of opportunity with a few warm days before Fall is over.

I called the local Sherwin Williams store yesterday and discussed the weather forecast and my project. He explained that it was taking a chance, that the overnight of 35F followed by 4 days of rain, predicted, could keep the paint from drying and curing properly and cause peeling and blistering down the road. When asked what he would do with the project, he said he would wait for Spring. So that is what we are going to do, as much as I would have liked to have it done before winter, it is what it is.

Thanks for your input.