According to this, the recent building booms resulted in homes unsuitable for either one (glad I live in an older house):
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Newer homes also rely very heavily on artificial environmental controls. Instead of windows, porches, awnings, layout, etc. designed to take advantage of the physical location of the home and the annual weather patterns, it is assumed that running a furnace all winter and air conditioning all summer will solve everything.
It used to be, for example, that you could open double-hung windows from the bottom up on one side of your house or apartment, and from the top down on another side, and get a reasonable cross-breeze thanks to the smart positioning of those windows.
And let’s not even get into the cost of heating a home with cathedral ceilings!
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It also used to be (and still is, in my case) that you had single pane windows that let the cold in even when shut tight, that you had a chimney that leaked more warm air than it produced, that half your house was unheated because there’s no radiator in the room (so you need to plug in expensive electric heating instead).
Discounting size, modern houses are way more efficient to heat and cool.
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Spend more time in the kitchen. That’s what relying on fast food gets you. 
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I have an acquaintance who, a few years ago, purchased a $650k condo in a building built at the height of the bubble in 2006ish, and began seeing some water damage on one of the outside walls a few months after moving in. A contractor came in, put a scope camera into the wall and discovered (a) the entire wall’s insulation was soaking wet, and had been for some time, resulting in untold amounts of mold and guck behind the entire wall. Tens of thousands of dollars to address it. And (b) the framing was not compliant with code to the extent that no bank would be able to provide a mortgage for such a property, making it essentially unsalable.
I try to remember that horror story any time I think a window latch that won’t close easily is worth complaining about.
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Put in a ropes course, of course.
ETA @anon3072533 beat me to it.
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This is why I’m considering a manufactured home for my next move. My plan is to add extra insulation and focus on energy efficiency. If I can’t supervise the work, I let contractors/builders know I have no problems using a scope to make sure they did a good job. Those tools are also good for documenting issues in case homeowners have to go to court.
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Most chimneys in older homes that are still standing are smaller because they were built for coal or gas heat, often with Ben Franklin-style stoves piped directly into the flue. The open flue in a wood-burning fireplace leaking cold air into the living room in a white suburban tract house circa 1940s-1960s is only one blip in housing history.
Rooms had doors, so that you could close off any room you weren’t using and not have to heat it. And there were small heaters in most rooms, whether radiator, gas, or coal.
Single pane glass, I’ll grant you, was not as energy-efficient as modern windows. Fortunately there are several ways to retrofit better insulation in and around windows. And one thing you don’t get with older homes is the problem of being too sealed, so that fresh air never gets inside the home unless a door is opened.
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Gabled pediment, obvs!
well, I’m glad to see that the piano is getting used.
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Dougal is not capable of murder.
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Um… that’s not the implication of a lead-pipe in the back-passage 
“Rectum?”
“Well it certainly didn’t help.”
We seem to move in different circles.
Anyway, I’m always up to expanding my horizon.
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I can only apologize and say, in my defence, that early exposure to “Carry On” movies has tended to skew my mind in the direction of double entendres. 
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Well, my “Carry On” exposure came later in life, and dubbed…
Can I interest you in the insights of Alistair Dabbs?
https://www.theregister.co.uk/Tag/something%20for%20the%20weekend
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I wonder how pun and euphemism based humour works in translation. I guess it does, as the the translations of “Asterix” were still funny in English. It must require more than simply translating the original lines. The translators will have to come up with original jokes that work in the context of the film. Maybe there are dubbed versions of films out that that are far funnier than the originals?
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If you aren’t particularly interested in single-handedly keeping the electric company in business or you smoke something you’d rather your interior not acquire the stale memory of, a porch is still a much used part of the home.
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I’m confident the buildings’ feelings will recover.
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Ah, yes, smoking kippers on the porch. It is a nightmare trying to get the fishy smell out of the soft furnishings if you do it inside.
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