The good news for you is that some of the best agricultural sites in the US consist of red clay soil. As long as your property DRAINS sufficiently, it's no big deal to tame this stuff. Trust me, I know from personal experience! Rather than looking at the big picture, why not focus on one small portion of your landscaping....one area that will make you happy each time you look at it? The ordeal of it ALL won't seem so insurmountable if you attack it a little bit at a time. Eric had the right idea in his earlier comment. I'd surely suggest that you turn as much of your property into something useful (and easier to take care of) instead of grass. Large landscape beds and tree collections can all be mulched to keep weeds down and to add to their attractiveness. Assorted mulches eventually break down and begin improving that soil, too. When we moved to our present home, this yard was pretty discouraging, too. I was horrified at this brick hard stuff we were supposed to grow stuff in. We tilled in a fair amount of aged bark fines and compost ONLY into those areas where we planned to add landscaping (shrubs, perennials, and annuals). The several trees we added, as well as the grass (mostly weeds when we got here), simply had to make do. Guess what? Trees planted directly into that hard red clay, with no amendments at all, grow like crazy! Those beds were amended once. We top dress with mulch and compost annually. We aerated the areas meant for grass heavily, then sodded with a hybrid Bermuda. After a very brief growing in period, the grass began to thrive like crazy on top of that red clay. Again, with very little watering (and we don't have an irrigation system). Come to find out, there's nothing difficult about growing in red clay soil. Well, we use a heavy duty auger to plant things rather than a shovel... but so what? ;-) Our plantings have thrived with less water, less fertilizer, less fuss than I have ever experienced in all of my years of growing! Go figure.

Girly Qs-Here's a good example for you--non-arched windows combined with a raised arch brick accent filled with a recessed herringbone pattern on the chimney. If you look close, you'll also notice a herringbone decorative pattern within a flush rectangle shape under the 2nd story windows. Aesthetically speaking, I think you would need to do something on a wall that big to soften it a bit. IMO the raised arch with the recessed herringbone pattern gives a nice "soft" accent and adds just enough architectural element to breakup that large expanse of wall. Hope this helps!

Here's the link: https://www.progressive.com/lifelanes/household/painting-brick/ To be clear and so we're all speaking in proper context, the 3 to 5 year recommendation is about REGULAR HOUSE PAINT. Which I have repeatedly stated that regular house paint is not the best product to use to change the color of brick. 30 years ago there wasn't the range of product to choose from like we have in 2019. Also, from the same article. And, again, to ensure everyone has proper context... "The Brick Industry Association also advises using a porous paint for exterior brick walls, so the brick can breathe." " Zumeta recommends looking into having your brick professionally stained, rather than painted. Although it can be more expensive, a brick stain penetrates the pores of the brick, unlike paint, which simply sits on the surface. It creates new color without some of the long-term risks that come with paint." In addition, the article speaks to the substrate. Which I also mentioned earlier in the thread because it matters. Bottom line is it's not okay to make sweeping, generalizing, fear-mongering comments about the pitfalls of painting brick without specifying product and substrate. The details matter. Lastly, from the article, this is bad advice. Which makes me question the article overall. I wouldn't use Super Paint exterior on normal substrates let alone brick unless the budget was Super tight for painting normal exterior substrates. JMHO: “Choosing a high-quality paint is vital for painting brick successfully,” says Watson. Both Watson and Crocker recommend using specific masonry paint products for painting brick, starting out with a conditioner and a primer, and then using a breathable latex exterior or interior paint, like Sherwin-Williams’ SuperPaint Acrylic Latex."

Really @kimlife, you're going to write those first 3 sentences and not comply with Houzz Code Chapter 3), Section C), paragraph iv), subparagraph e), with accompanying footnote 7) ?? It states "poster must provide photos of as many views of the surroundings, the house interior and exterior, as required to illustrate" the question! Yeah, you know, the handbook ;)