Thanks to all of you guys for the helpful responses. I'm going to go with
the oil based paint and proper caulking route. Using cedar is not a bad
idea, except that the cedar sold today may or may not be the heart- wood you
could be sure of buying 30 years ago. Due to reduced old growth logging in
lieu of pressure from environmentalist groups, a lot of the cedar today is
from young trees and therefore basically just sapwood, which doesn't last
like the, previously common, old cedar heartwood lumber. And due to PR
concerns in this day of 'environmentalistic sentimentalism', lumber vendors
won't tell you if they are selling cedar heartwood, as that would invite
negative publicity from aggresssive environmental-activist groups who are
opposed to all old growth logging. (I learned all this when I was
researching cedar as an option for my backyard deck.)

Ken