I used to have one of these before the supra, they are nice cars very fun to drive. Your right about the paintwork it is really thin, you should be glad you didn't get a red one they are going pink already. (i had a silver one). They are good fun cars, they tend to eat front tyers and 1st gear is pretty much useless in the wet at busy roundabouts or junctions (so bear that in mind).
When it comes to replacing the tyre's try to cough up the money and buy bridgestone potenza's, from what i read on the civic type r forum the car was developed with them so don't be tempted to buy falken (although a good tyre anyway) as the tyre walls are not as stiff as the potenza's and the car will feel a sloppy round the bends - unless of course you find a tyre that is as stiff as the potenza's but i never found one although that was 4 years ago now,
I found servicing reasonable price, and fuel its not too bad to if you stay off the vtec (but who's gonna do that lol)
Just another thing, vtec will not work until the engine has reached operating temp, it will still rev high but the high lift cams will not engage so you wont feel a kick when it hits 5800rpm. Also these cars do consume a bit of oil and again the vtec system wont run if the oil is too low, there is no on board system to tell you this the case so if you feel the car is not hitting vtec ts usually cos the car is still too cold or the oil level is not high enough so keep a top up bottle in the boot.
You may like the gear knob now... in the winter its hell frozen over (its like putting you hand on a block of ice to change gear )
Discs and Pads are an easy change on this car too, no harder than the supra anyway.
Oh and get yourself a seatbelt harness pad, not for you but for the seat you see the seatbelt rubs on the side of the upper bolster and can wear the Alcantra, Also try not to wear jeans with things that can get caught on the seat fabric as it can pull the material.