We have moved into new construction and the master bedroom has a 10 x 3 feet small balcony. It appears to be very cheaply made (?oak), looks sort of greyish, no finish at all. I would like to prevent it from rotting and molding, but I have no idea what to use. I went to a paint store and they recommended to use a power washer and then one coat of oil-based exterior paint, but I don't quite trust them. Could someone please suggests the steps to get my balcony in order. I need to know how to prepare it for staining and then what product to use (I am flexible on either solid color or semi-transparant). Thanks

walkway is along the garage. We were not planning on planting anything along the fence because there is a tree in the middle. The house is on a private drive and the fence is only exposed during the winter when the leaves are gone.

Let it fade to a natural grey or stain it black so it recedes into the landscape. Orange ‘cedar’ stains are painfully fake looking.

@hallettco and @lisedv -I'm totally down for a black fence!! Our roof is black and our front door is black, so I think it might be nice to have the fence tie into those elements... I'd just need to convince my husband, who is very much not into the idea. As a compromise, I'm debating the idea of testing out more of a dark brown (ideally with cool tones since our house color is on the cooler side... maybe Cordovan Brown by Behr?) since that might still provide contrast with the house without making my husband sad about the fence color haha. You can't see our fence from the front of the house because the fence is set back, but here's the front for reference!