I’m trying to decide between staining and painting white cedar shingles.  Here’s the situation: I’ve got an old house with painted shingles in pretty rough shape (the paint job but not the shingles) and a brand new addition shingled last fall.  I’d prefer to stain, but that means stripping the old shingles to bare wood so the stain would take to them as well as the new shinlges.  I’ve heard everything from “impossible” to “easy” on doing this.  As for painting, I’d only need to scrape and sand the loose stuff on the old shinlges, but I’ve been told painting new cedar is not a good idea because of its tendency to bleed through.  Any advice on this?  If I do paint, what’s the best call for a primer?  If I strip and stain what’s the best way to strip old (probably lead based) paint?