One of the things you realize when you deconstruct a house to replace something is how crudely they are built. This is not fine wood working! Notice the gap in trim piece as it rests up against the header. You lose lots of heat through these cracks. The old aluminum sliding patio doors are poor insulators! The other weird things about these stucco clad tract houses is there is no exterior sheathing! This house is in earthquake country. Sheathing (plywood) on a house helps resist racking during the side to side shaking of an earthquake. I am no building code expert but I think sheathing is required on new construction. You often see chipboard used on the new McMansion-style houses going up around here. So this house has no sheathing meaning that the layers starting from the outside are stucco, stucco wire, tarp paper, 2x4's and insulation, then drywall. It is amazing that the house doesn't just fall down all by itself!
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