I will never name my child Ivy

no offense to my friend named Ivy, but I hate IVY, the plant that is!!!
We have lived in our house for almost four years and have had an ongoing war with the ivy that grows EVERYWHERE! I am constantly pulling it up and trying to win this war which is oddly resembling the war in Iraq in that there is very little progress being made and areas that were once victories get overtaken easily by the enemy. I am amazed at how the ivy can grow into cracks, the vents of the crawlspace, under the porch, underneath the siding, all around the base of other plants, and it is so irritating to pull it up and see it take off paint, thus creating even more work to do. Three years ago we got rid of a ton of it and in some places it is back to the way it was as though we had never cleared it out in the first place. This morning, I don't know why, I waged war with the ivy once again. I pulled and pulled for about an hour before I got hungry and had to go eat lunch. I wanted to work on it now before the spiders and bugs come out and make yard work icky. I couldn't believe the large pile of Ivy I collected when I was finished, it is as large as a leaf pile you might play in and it is 75% Ivy (25% leaves). The area that was overrun with ivy doesn't a lot of bushes or plants so I need to figure out what to plant there in hopes of keeping the ivy in retreat. I realize I will probably never win this war, but I at least want to make it look like I have as long as we own the house. Though it makes good ground cover it is trying to take over our house year after year and it does more damage then good.