With the addition of some appropriate details, a potentially uninteresting box becomes a simple but attractive cottage that fits in well with the surrounding neighborhood.
With the addition of some appropriate details, a potentially uninteresting box becomes a simple but attractive cottage that fits in well with the surrounding neighborhood.

Roof trusses have almost completely replaced hand-framing in residential remodeling, and for good reason: Framing a roof with trusses saves money. There's simply no way a crew of carpenters working on site and being billed at $50 per hour -- no matter how skilled or efficient they might be -- can compete on cost with factory-built trusses dropped into place by a crane.

Design thinking, however, has not kept pace with construction technology. Although modern computer-designed trusses permit almost unlimited variation, too many trussed roofs are straightforward and boring when a more satisfying effect would have been possible for little added cost.

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