The story is all too common in today�s housing market: the basic principles of scale, proportion, balance, rhythm, and consistent architectural styles are often misapplied in new residential construction. Walk around almost any new development, and you�ll find dormers that are bigger than the front door; windows that are out of scale; too few or too many columns; and more. What Not to Build: Do's and Don'ts of Exterior Home Design shows these problems and more to the reader. Focusing on the exteriors of houses, the authors--who are architects and designers--have identified a number of "problem"designs. Through photographs and illustrations, they show how the problems can be solved by applying easy-to-understand design principles. Anyone reading the book will be able to avoid the problems when designing their own house or fix problems that appear in the house they�re already living in.