I wasnt involved in the wall /landscaping. I dont believe it is however. You usually find this type of thing being real stone. If you want to see the whole project however and a quite fun transformation from a dated drab home to what it is now here is a link http://s952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/DesignDirective/Covert%20Residence%20Addition%20and%20remodel/?albumview=slideshow

Cutting a house horizontally in half with different materials is a look best left to the production McMansions of the boom. If you are going to choose different materials to accent the build, you should choose elements to clad in it completely. And NEVER do "just the front" of the house in stone or brick with a cheaper material elsewhere. If you are going to use stone or brick, clad the entire box of the structure in that material. The expense of doing correctly like that is why most people choose one of a facade's bumpouts to use that material on and save the less expensive material for the main box. That is what your inpiration photo shows. The stone goes from bottom to top and is on the whole element to be accented, not cutting it in half.

Thank you all for the feedback. So, I did alot of driving around trying to find some inspiration. Here's the house I really like: I never thought I would like a white house until I saw this! I have no idea if this was painted/whitewashed/mortar washed (well, I don't really know what the differences are). Or, maybe it's a white brick that did not require any additional treatment. Do they exist? I'm contacting 2 brick companies tomorrow to give me an idea what brick they used on this house. I did talk to my builder and discussed what kind of extra cost it would be to if we whitewash the brick. He's guessing extra $10k!!! Ouch! But he thinks the above house was painted considering the consistency. I really like it BUT: 1. I'm worried about resale. I know one realtor who just built a new house (same price range) who painted the brick white. Her house is all white but not as pretty as the one above. Does this mean it would be safe to assume that resale is not a problem? FYI, I have not found that many white brick houses in the area. 2. Maintenance. Main reason we want brick/stone everywhere is for low maintenance. If we do paint/whitewash, that means it's no longer low maintenance, right???? 3. how it ages. I guess this is also considered maintenance, but I'm concerned how white brick would look over time. Would it eventually look dingy? Any ideas to achieve the above look without doing any painting/whitewashing??? I have been looking at lighter bricks. Maybe this will be a good enough alternative. Any thoughts/comments highly appreciated. Thanks!

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."