My house is close to the central Ca coast (Monterey) and we get a bit of fog. We bought the house 6 years ago. It has redwood siding. The siding has not been maintained and has oil based stain on it. I believe it is Cabots as some was in the garage when we bought it. Anyway, plenty of mold and mildew on one side. I have gotten some quotes to re stain but all of the people were more comfortable with paint and gave quote $7-10K to refinish. I was not comfortable with any of them and decided to undertake this myself. After experimenting with different strippers, I found one that really works and will have the house stripped in another weekend (stripper followed by a brightner) We will be ready to stain again in a couple of weeks.

My questions: (1)If using a solid stain do I apply a primer first (Redwood) I see only posts re cedar. (2) I need to plug a some holes a $%^&* woodpecker has made. What would you recommend. One of the painters recommended bondo (3) anything else I should know?

Steve