It will be some work, but I don't know of any vine that isn't. Well, clematis and annual vines are easy, but they won't climb without a trellis.

The only time of year when I don't have to prune my English ivy is from late November to early April. It will quickly get away from you otherwise.

It will damage brick masonry but it take a good while to do serious damage--15 years or more.

It will take the whole wall over.

The sun won't kill it.

It is subject to powdery mildew which doesn't seem to kill mine. It is also subject to rust,which will kill some of it, enough to make swatches of it unsightly for a while in mid-summer. That problem seem to take care of itself once colder weather arrives.

I tried spraying Bayer fungicide on it (which works great on blackspot on roses) but that did not take care of the rust. For what it is worth the Bayer also failed to remedy the rust on a couple of dogwood trees.

It is, however, great on the roses!

The ivy will collect a lot of pollen, dust, etc. in its leaves and at certain times of the year pruning it can be irritating.

It is fairly easy to keep up with, but I'd rather not have to deal with it.

A house near me used to have ivy trained up over the front door in a sort of giant wreath, which was pretty. It was recently removed and the damage to the bricks (especially the mortar) is very evident. I've no idea how long the ivy was there, certainly the past 10 years or so, probably longer for that amount of plant.