It takes a village to make a house.
These days, the civic impoverishment of suburbia is so intense that house-buyers feel the need to stick multiple unnecessary roof articulations on the facade to sustain the illusion that they are coming "home" to a village.  Each house in the subdivision has to symbolically repeat this idea of being a village unto itself.  The added expense in gutters and flashings can easily mount up above $20,000 in a house like this one outside Kansas City.  Note: thanks to Andres Duany, who originated this insight.

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