In Korean, there is a word, ‘Chogasamgan’. This signifies a three-room thatched house with a roof made of straw. The length of one room amounts to 1.82 meters, which is full when one lies down. Three rooms consist of a room, a kitchen, and a barn. It was a byword of simple but amiable and warm life. Smoke from the chimney on the roof in the evening and a white gourd placed on the roof are also frequently used in artworks to depict a hometown.
But living in a thatched-roof house is tough. The biggest problem is that the roof decays. The roof has great insulation, but when the straw gets damp through snow and rain, the roof is infested with worms and mice and the sparrows settle down. If you do not put a new straw thatch every year or every second year, it leaks and becomes unclean. It is also vulnerable to fire. Considering the nature of a thatched house, the phrase "to burn one’s house to get rid of the bedbugs (a Korean version of the proverb “don’t cut off your nose to spite your face)" did not come out of nowhere.

In 1972, a guide was issued to renovate the thatched roof as a part of the Saemaul living-conditions improvement projects in rural areas. Rural residents opposed this.

They opposed it because they did not want to change a familiar residential environment, or did not have the money to change. For them, sending their children to Seoul, the ‘land of opportunity,’ was a bigger desire than changing the roof. But the population of Seoul was already high. The development of the rural areas was necessary to solve the problem with the concentration of people in big cities. The primary Saemaul Project to relieve the overpopulation was to improve the environment such as widening the village road, purification of rivers, roof renovations and so on.

The Saemaul leader and village head led the roof renovation in the village. And in 1978, six years later, it made a big difference. Approximately 2.7 million houses, which number greatly exceeds the initial target of 2.5 million, have been upgraded.

The cost of replacing a thatched roof is 11,000 won each year, which is 110,000 won in 10 years and 220,000 won in 20 years. Let's calculate the opportunity cost: Straw on the roof can be used to make a rice bag, while rotten straw can be used as a fertilizer or can be sold. The cost of roof renovations can be recovered within one to five years.

On the other hand, slate roofing tile, the most efficient of roof tiles (cement, slate roofing tile, tin sheet) is light-weight, hygienic and safe from fire. It can also be used semi-permanently for 60 years at the cost of three years of using a thatched roof. It also can be painted a bright color. Above all, having no need to change the straw on the roof every year has spoken to the hearts of residents. The residents were funded with aid and a loan (10,000 won to 15,000 won) from the government, and the roof renovation gye (group). The residents changed the roof by themselves one by one by working collaboratively.

The bright, clean new roof looked nice and spared the endeavor, but changing the roof alone did not make the country house a house in Seoul. It looked like 'a fedora with a traditional jacket’ and ‘a traditional skirt with a western hat’.

Now a new task – house renovation - was given. It was the part of the procedure of house modernization changing from an outside lavatory to a toilet, a wood-burning stove to a kitchen, and a floor to a living room. It was possible because of the Saemaul project to improve the living environment with a water supply and sewage system and briquette heating. Unfortunately, the government subsidy had decreased and the construction cost was raised so the performance of urban-style modern dwelling project was poor. However, renovation of housing was conducted continuously until the 1980s and it has become an archetype of rural housing today. The roof renovation was the first step in the modernization of rural housing.