[briHass]

If you haven't read it, I also enjoyed his book, 'House'. It has a similar theme to TSoaNM: multiple parties with the same ultimate goal, but conflicting approaches born out of self-interest.

I read it shortly after buying the house that would be (and is) our 'family home', of a very similar vintage (early 80s, East Coast.) Certainly not every home from the past was artfully constructed (or even well-built), but something just feels different with the modern, Fortune-500 homebuilders that rush an army of interchangeable subcontractors through cookie-cutter plans to maximize interior square-footage and stack as many units as possible on a tract of land.