Am I alone in thinking that rendered houses look cheap and poorly executed? I'm not talking about small touches of render such as around windows and such, I'm talking about a house entirely rendered. Whatever happened to the classic, fancier red brick look? Double brick veneer homes hold their value a lot more than a rendered house would. Or even a timbered/weatherboard style? Too much of anything is bad, but especially with a stucco exterior. Yuck.
This surge of plain rendered homes in suburban Australia is frightening. I'd like to know what started it, because I seem to remember a nice variation in materials when I was growing up.