Please don't be afraid to try something if you like it. The more you delve into your projects, the more experienced and creative you will get. And lukki for you, you have found the forum(s) early on. At the start a fixer upper can be really overwhelming, especially to someone without experience; I found it was easier to focus on one project at a time (like fixing the leaks in the roof) and was surprised at how quickly it started to come together. It wasn't as stressful that way too. You said initially you have the inside sort of figured out, I would love to know what you have planned and see pictures. I prefer older homes because they are usually more generous with storage and space, I bet the inside of yours has open and generous rooms with lots of potential. From the outside, it looks like a real gem in the rough. Which of the pictures are you drawn to? We bought a vacant foreclosure home in 2006. When I showed it to my DH and said I was in love, he thought I was nuts. But in my mind I could see most of it in it's finished state and it felt like home. We've come a long way, the interior is about 80% done, and right now we are focused on the exterior.

Yes, since the material was not properly flashed and installed during initial construction, attempting a solid, watertight and insect proof wall at this point is probably too expensive to consider. I do think, as suggested, that a properly designed landscape screen using lattice (and perhaps with climbing, flowering plant material) might replicated the initial design and add some softening to the masonry facade.

I would like to see a pic of the actual house .Usually in townhouse properties the exterior needs to be the same throughout so maybe a bit info too .I don’t agree that only Greek revival looks good in white but really I need to see the actual house. BTW symmetry is overrated but asymmetry is not an easy task to get right.

I would buy your house in a flash as is, and the only things I would want to immediately change are instantly getting rid of the 4 carriage lamps (round globe lights might be fun near the door , but I think I would do flowers or art rather than lighting at the street level). Second thing I’d want to do immediately is something different with the left window.. I’m not sure what. I wouldn’t paint the brick but I would paint the siding and the concrete (not necessarily the same color). Then after that I’d possibly paint the metalwork railing upstairs as well. I’d have loads of flowers and trailing vines coming from the upper railings, New Orelans style.