Aluminum should not be in constant contact with water or a water retaining material like brick because it has little resistance to galvanic action. It has additional problems with cement mortar. It is only appropriate for flashing when the exposure is small and drainage is good. Special coatings may allow it to last longer but they increase the cost. In this case you need to slope the top course as much as possible (or install a cast stone or copper coping) and install flashing below that course to limit the amount of water that gets into the cavity (unless the flashing at the floor line is adequate for that purpose). Such a short brick wall can't follow any conventional flashing solution. A minimum treatment would be copper "L" flashing starting under the house wrap and sitting on the top brick course projecting as far out and down as you can afford. There would a direct trade off between the amount of exposed copper and the steepness of the slope. I suppose you could also consider an oversized "watertable" sitting on the top of the brick as if this was a wood framed structure sitting on a brick foundation but perhaps the windows would look strange. It's a tough detailing problem. Historically brick usually stops at the bottom of floor framing to avoid these issues.

Ask the home decorating forum. They're good with this stuff. I'd want to redo the retaining wall with something that brings out the brick or stone or even (faux) railroad ties/landscape timbers and then clean and re-stain the shakes and wood siding and embrace what you have because it's actually pretty nice. I can see taking it to cottage in the woods, but it's just not beachy. I guess you could paint the brick white and the cedar teal and the trim white...

oh, the concept of properly prepping is understood; however, latex over previously improperly prepped oil paint has resulted in disaster. Either all paint is now to be stripped, or we install vinyl siding. My question was related to siding only 3 sides of the house. I've called around, and apparently that is done all the time. I want to vinyl (or some such material) side the back and the sides and leave the front wood. I just cannot be painting the entire house every few years. Thanks for your input.

Hi @klem1, thank you again so much for additional input! I spoke with someone at Cabot this morning, which added more good data. It is not a good idea to put down a coat of their semi-transparent product if you have previously applied semi-solid. He recommended sticking with the same product. He also added that there isn't any clear product you can just apply as top coat. Stick to what you have used previously with the pigment in it. He asked me to do a "bead test"or "splash test", by pushing some water against the siding to see if the wood soaks it up or if it beads off. Interestingly, on the non-weather side I saw beading. But on the South side (the weather side here in Seattle), the wood just soaked up the water. So I'll go ahead and just have my painter apply another coat of the same semi-solid stain of spruce blue. Some years down the line I might do the "stripping" and restarting, but for now, I'll just protect what is there. Many greetings, Christina