Suggestions on exterior finish for very old 'render'

I live in an old limestone cottage from the 1900s. The front facade is limestone in a freestone pattern, with very wide mortar and rendered quoins - it is painted, and I'm just going to repaint it a new colour.

One side has very rough render and is on the boundary so I'm not going to touch it.

The other is a very smooth finish cement, obviously very old but looks like high quality steel grey concrete. It has 'blocks' marked in it with a very fine trowel or something to give it a kind of fake stone finish. It is currently painted but peeling very badly. It would look nice raw but there are various cracks in the walls and an extra window has been added, and these have been patched up with a fairly rough finish mortar. This is the side that needs help.

So I'm thinking my options are:

1. Waterblast the walls to completely remove all the paint and leave it as is - this one is probably best for the house as it is a stone building and needs to 'breathe'.
2. Simply repaint the lot after removing all the loose paint
3. Remove the paint, paint it with an acrylic render to give the lot a textured finish so the joins and poorly rendered bits aren't so obvious, and then paint it
4. Other

Any suggestions or tips on how to do any of the above the best way?


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