Older man looking with disgust at a row of nearly identical houses
The nagging discontent with the aesthetic of new homes reveals big problems with how they're built — and even larger flaws in the American dream itself.

Bailey McInnes first noticed the house during one of her lunch hours. She likes to walk on her midday breaks, admiring the charming, little craftsman homes that dot her Northern Virginia neighborhood. The homes she passes share a lot of similarities — brick and wood, a modest front porch, details that suggest someone put in a lot of time and care a century ago. On one of these walks last fall, she noticed something new: One of the homes was gone.