Because I want all that "history" and colors to show thru and keep the dust from the old paint on the wall. I'm personally undecided about painting it or no but sooo many people love that wall as is. The clear coat will seal it. I thought I will live with it for awhile clear coated.

Pam our walls in the back basement were coated with LastiSeal Concrete & Brick Sealer. It can be repainted later and will protect the brick where you still have some paint. The details on the product are here: We didn't do this so I can't tell you how it smells etc. It looks pretty much like the rest of the brick (they ad an odor issue in the back room and tried this to help). A marble sealer isn't a good idea. It penetrates the marble (or brick in this case) and given you have paint, it's not going to penetrate that area so you'll get a spotty application and I'm not thinking you could repaint over that either...but on that I can't be sure. I just know it wouldn't apply cleanly because when I seal our marble it does not stick to any of the painted trim next to the marble (I can wipe it off the next day if I've missed a spot) or the caulk so there's no way it's going to penetrate where you have your paint. When you miss a spot (on paint) it gets gummy....all over a wall? Yuck that could be a mess. As to the water based poly. I'd try a test spot in a hidden or near the floor area and see if it works. IT's pretty easy to apply and I've found it to be a good solution for protecting walls as well. When it does not work you know right away because it gums up on stuff it does not like. I have used it over paint and dyes and never had a problem, even unstable ones. The trick on unstable paints or dyes is to brush over ONCE and move on!!! Don't keep brushing and it will seal things down where they are. Use a very good brush and take it slowly. Here is a link that might be useful: LastiSeal

The local painter came by this morning and looked at the house, but he did not give me an estimate, although he did tell me it would be less than $3000. I think I will probably get a firm estimate from him next week or so. Anyway, at this point, I am prepared to wait. If I get this done by September, I will be very happy. We noticed when we looked on the left side of the house (where I never go) that the creeping fig vine had started to grow up the stucco side of the house, and so we will have to remove that ourselves before it damages the stucco. My brother and I can do minor repairs to stucco and paint that. The painter asked whether I had an old can of the previous paint that was used on the wood part of the house, but DB thinks we do not. The painter wanted to know whether it was oil or water based, and he told me that oil based paint can no longer be used (at least in California), and that that might require more prep work if the old paint is oil based. Since I want everything primed properly anyway, this will not be an issue.

I really like the body color of the house. I agree that the trim is too pink. Are you going to repaint the whole house, or just the trim?