I also believe that my house will be standing for another century, when these other houses are falling apart. Several years ago, we had a terrible windstorm over the Fourth of July weekend. It collapsed into a heap of 2x4s and fiberboard siding. I look out over the fields of new houses and it just makes me shudder. Uninteresting big boxes covered in acres of vinyl siding, row after row of the same two or three house styles.
Every house has the same standard sized windows, the same white trim, the same front door.
There is not a shred of originality anywhere. Neighborhood covenants limit the yards to an expanse of grass and a few trees, limit the colors to the pale, washed-out palette of tans and beige. Because they're new. Because it is simply too expensive to build houses the same way they used to. Because there aren't real craftsmen out there to do it anymore.