Once brick is painted, there is no turning back, ever, ever, ever. Not even just a small section. It is not like wall paint that can just be returned to a former palette. Please do as many have advised, and wait before jumping on the paint bandwagon. I would say even wait a year, to give yourself time to truly become settled in your new place and go through different seasons of decorating. Don’t be swayed by the current decorating trends as they will change many times over the life of a house. I live in a 1880’s home that has a brick wall in the kitchen to which previous owners glued linoleum -fake tile in the 1950’s, no doubt, because it was the decorating trend of the day. That glue seems to be there to stay for eternity. So we really have no choice but to paint, but would have loved to keep the original brick if it had been in better shape.

I am not a fan of painted brick at all. Even though there are a few around here it isn't a very popular practice. We have basements and clay sub soil and freeze thaw cycle that can play havoc on a foundation. Here painted brick sends up a red flag if purchasing a home. Some people will only fix the brick and not the foundation. Foundation fixes are $$$$. A brick fix is always noticeable. To hide it they paint the brick then they throw up drywall in the basement to hide the foundation problem on the inside. Personally I would never buy a painted brick house. First I would just paint the trim and windows and see how you like it. Have you thought of staining the brick if you feel you must change the brick ?

I would question someone's sense if they told me to paint the inside of my fireplace brick WHITE! *SMH* Can you imagine how ugly that would be after burning a fire just one time? Ridiculous! The only reason the red brick stands out is because you have nothing in the fireplace. Where is the set of logs? Where is the fireplace screen that's supposed to go in front of the fireplace so that nothing pops and flies onto the floor? I agree that if you do not use it, then put some decor inside of there. There is not a thing wrong with the color brick!

Material choice for porch stairs may be regional. In my area, wooden stairs are very common in bungalows, especially frame houses. Concrete stairs are more common on brick and stucco houses, but some of those are stone or brick sides with wood stairs. We redid the front porch stairs of a 1920s architect designed bungalow and the stairs and porch floor have always been wood. Done correctly, wooden stairs on a bungalow are not wrong. However, they should not look like deck stairs. Treads should be single piece stair treads, not 2 2x6 boards. Better quality lumber yards will have stair tread material. If wooden rails are present, the spindles would be underneath the rail, not applied to the outside like some deck stairs. Many bungalows did not originally have railings. Metal railings were used but typically were functional not decorative. There are lots of materials on the web you can reference about porch designs. The most fun advice is to go on architectural discussion walking tours with a friend or spouse. Take lots of pictures, notice what looks good and what doesn't look like it fits. I think it will be easier and cheaper to build wooden stairs that look right than to have concrete ones built. Definitely don't let anyone talk you into using precast stairs or precut stair stringers. If you want something to look right, it needs to be designed for your house