If anybody but Dad had been responsible for it, I should have said it was hideous.

Poor old Dad! He knows absolutely nothing about architecture.

But of course I raved over it, and, really, when I came to examine it closer, I found it had its good points.

Covered with vines, it would have been actually beautiful.

Virginia creeper grows like mad in California and with English ivy and Lady Banksia roses to help out, I was sure I could transform my palace into a perfect bower in almost no time.
I was awfully glad I had seen it first, for now.