Do you think I can restore this beautiful exterior siding?

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Hi all, VERY amateur here. We are repainting the exterior of the house and replacing our rotted porch ceiling. When the guys removed the old ceiling, they exposed what I think is some beautiful mid-century wood (Cedar? Cypress?). To my knowledge, it has always been painted. I used a heat gun on high and removed the surface paint, and then sanded with a medium grit paper. The finish is very smooth now, but you can see there is a lot embedded in the wood. Does anyone think the paint can be removed to allow me to stain the wood? Or does 60 years of paint mean all I can do is repaint? The house is mid-century ranch and not rustic at all, so I'm not looking for that type of finish.

Thanks!

I think it would be a huge task to get back to bare wood wiyh no paint flecks still embedded. Also I would be very careful as to how you'd remove the paint. Can you test the paint for lead???
Lyle

:whs: