Painting over color coat
 

I have a 20 year old house in Southern California, approximately 5
miles from the beach. I asked a painting contractor to give me a bid
for painting the trim. He said that my stucco has blistered areas
around the base and that the stucco is absorbing water and needs to be
water sealed. He suggested painting with Dunn & Edwards Acri-Flat. My
stucco currently has some type of color mixed in and looks OK, however,
a little dingy in some areas and blistered in some areas where the dirt
touches the stucco as the contractor said. I thought the ideas of the
color was to avoid painting. Should I ignore the contractor's
recommendation and just have the trim painted?

Painting over color coat
 

I'd probably go the other way and not only trust the painter's notion
but also be overly cautious even to the point of repairing the
stucco...if I owned real estate in SoCal !