WOT: Exterior House Painting, anyone got some advice... Options

[McMark]

I'm working on painting my house and I have a few questions, or rather a few things that I'm not sure about. The house was built in 1941 and doesn't appear to have had a 'good' paint job since the original. There is a lot of cracking that goes down to the base wood. We've tried scraping the paint, and that gets the loose stuff off, but leaves 'ledges' that will obviously show through the new paint. We want to do it right, so how do we approach this? I've been using a DA orbital sander to 'feather' the edges, but with so many cracks, I feel like I'm stripping the paint off the whole house. I'm I going too far?

Also, there appears to be sealant/caulk between each slat of siding. That is cracking as well, so I've been cutting it all out and plan on recaulking all the joints. Am I correct in doing this?

[pjf]

The problem with sanding a house of your vintage is that the original paint was probably lead paint. I have a house built in the 40's and after doing some sanding it ocurred to me that I should check. You can get an inexpensive lead paint test kit at most hardware stores and places like Home Depot. Sure enough the test showed positive so I asked my local paint store what I should do about the different levels caused by the peeling paint. After removing all the loose stuff with either pressure washing or scaping they recommended Bondo. I know, Bondo is for cars, not houses but I got enough "second opinions" to convince me it was legit. I've tried it on several spots on my house and so far it seems to be working. I've been putting it on primed wood, not bare. You have to work in small batches, make sure you use enough hardener so it sets up hard so you can sand later but it seems to be doing the trick: leveling things off without raising a cloud of lead dust. It also works for any other irregularities like nail holes and minor cracks. I also agree that Phenoseal is the chaulk to use. Good luck and remember all the money you're saving by doing it yourself.