Sam, please accept my apologies if it seemed that I was belittling your home. That was most certainly not my intention.
Your method of construction is very different to ours here in the UK. Our homes are built predominately from brick with concrete or clay tile roofs, and some times natural slate, which is quite expensive. We do have timber frame construction, but even then clay bricks are used on the external elevations.
I spent my entire working life in the construction industry. Whilst methods have changed since I started in 1956, materials have changed very little.
My previous home was a cottage built in about 1570 from mud and stone known locally as "Cob" with a straw thatched roof. These were common building materials in the sixteenth century.
One area of the UK where clapper-board is still used in construction is rural Suffolk. That is due to planning laws.
I don't know what you guys have to pay for you homes, but here in the UK the price of houses had become almost prohibitive for first time buyers. Over the past couple of years the price of property has fallen significantly. My home for example is a three bedroom, two bathroom single story building (Bungalow), measuring a modest 1200 square feet. The current value for my area would be between 400,000 and 500,000 Us dollars.
I hope this explains the reason for my original post.
Alan.
