There really is no paint type stain. It's one or the other. Duration is a paint, so you would throw that out as an option if you were staining. The benefit to using a paint is that it will form a skin on top of the coating which will serve as a protective barrier from moisture and provide a certain degree of washability. The drawback to using a paint is that it will peel. Stain will be much more resistant to peeling, but will not be as washable. Stain is also easier to apply and has better lapping properties. You can really change colors to whatever color you like. The only time you may be limited with color choices is if you are painting aluminum siding. After the power wash, you will want to scrape and sand any loose and peeling paint. You probably won't need an electric sander, but people do use those if peeling is widespread or they are trying to remove paint down to fresh wood quickly. There are scrapers that you can buy, but I always have had the most success with stiff putty knifes. After you are done scraping you will want to feather sand edges of peeled paint with 150 grit and then prime the raw areas of wood with a high quality exterior oil based slow drying primer. I use 2.5" brushes for pretty much everything but 3" brushes are also good for painting wide boards. You can also roll the paint on with a small 4" roller and then backbrush. This may be faster. Try not to work in the sun, and only tackle as many boards as you can to keep the edge of your paint wet. You want to do 1-4 boards at a time (depending on how fast you are) and then do the next set. What you don't want to do is stop in the center of a board, unless it is at a seam.

Great information silversilverado, thank you so much! Did you have mold all over or just in particularly damp spots? My red cedar is only on the second floor and is almost completely protected by a big roof overhang (only the north side ever really gets wet with rain), but we are in a region of the Alps that is a bit damp and chilly... I'm wondering if I will have much moisture problem (the 60 year old pine siding we took down was in really great shape). Your advice sounds very reasonable. I just wish I knew if these oil saturators were the same product as an the oil based stain we used in the US, but I don't think so because they are really new and you can only get them clear (they're mixtures of natural oils, like linseed) and since the product itself is the oil, there is no water based equivalent. It's supposed to be the most ecological treatment for wood. I love the idea of trying the product on a sample first. Quite wise. Thanks again!!

That's a LOT of stone on the front facade. I'd keep it to the garage and post bases, only, then do stucco for everywhere else stone is called for. I think I'd go for a dark green roof, keep the trusses the same color as shown, do a sage/gray color for the shakes, and find stone that will work with those colors. Keep the garage door, the front door, and the front posts the same stain color as the trusses. The shakes and stucco should be the same color. This picture is similar to what I had in mind, but I'd go with a lighter stain color (still too much stone, IMO): Here's another option with a sagier green:

Thanks RES2. I want the elegance of sawn shingles and not the rustic look of split shakes. My neighbors all have sawn shingles. I have ordered five samples, Nantucket grade, which I think is the best grade but I don’t know how it compares to the red/blue grading system. Have you used Malbec shingles on a project? What do you think of the durability of the finish on the factory-stained singles? I posted a photo of the house when its brown shingles, I don’t find it appealing at all. Since we’re biting the bullet and putting in all Bea windows, I think it makes sense to put up all new shingles. I need to know how they’re going to wrap the house for moisture shedding. The devil is on the details, it seems to me.