For the love of the fireplace

I spotted this gutted home just north of Foothill. I wish I could
remember what the original house looked like. You can see that there
is brick just underneath the flagsone. Which looks better? I just
hope that they don't build something with vinyl windows. There is a
house up the street from me that was a cute (but small) wooden
affair, and they took it down to studs and put up a quite large and
somewhat generic home in its place. The siding is not wood, and the
window frames aren't either. I call these toxic houses. I suppose
that p.o.v. might bother some builders, but I'm a plastic-phobe. I'm
keeping my fingers crossed on this one.