Judy Princeton's father has just passed away a month go leaving the family to struggle along without him emotionally and financially. Now without enough money to stay in their lovely house in Carmel they must move into the old run down Victorian house three miles away in Monterey. The house had been built by Judy's great-grandparents and has gone through numerous tenants, becoming rundown.
Mrs. Princeton has plans to fix up the house but has no idea how to go about it and has limited funds. Her only idea so far is to remove the gingerbread wood work from the outside and clear away the vines.
While her and Judy are standing outside discussing this they are approached by José, a man who had worked for Judy's grandparents. He offers to help clear away the vines. While he does this a crowd begins to form along the side walk with two people in the crowd being members of the Urban Renewal League, a new group whose mission is to make the area more attractive without destroying historical landmarks. The group has applied for a government grant and thinks the Princeton house would be a good example of the type of work they're trying to do. If approved as a project this means the group will fund the work but the Princeton's don't get to make the ultimate decision on what gets done.
The project is of course approved and soon workers show up to clean away the overgrown foliage, cut off the gingerbread, and paint the house moss green, a color which Judy suggested. They also plan on tearing down the two little cottages on the property. Judy is appalled to hear this since she planned to redecorate the cottages and rent them out. She's able to talk her way into keeping the cottages and excitedly begins making plans to remodel one of them. She wants to fix it up the way she would want it if she were to live there, daydreaming about soon living in it with her longtime boyfriend Kent.
Her daydream is destroyed when she heads to a interior design store and selects a living rooms worth of French provincial furniture and 12 yards of damask fabric, planning for it to amount to $200, but having it actually cost $1,100 not including tax. Shocked and disappointed she informs the sales woman she can't afford it and is told she has to pay the $180 for the fabric which has already been cut. Judy feels terribly discouraged and disappointed. Emotional about the furniture, Judy rushes home and declares she's giving up on the cottage and on Tony, the handsome neighbor boy who plans on helping with the cottages.
Judy calls Kent, who she had previously blown off to hang out with Tony, and insists he come take her for a picnic at Point Lobos right away. The picnic is short and tumultuous. Judy finds Kent insensitive and Kent find Judy juvenile. When they sit down to eat their picnic lunch Kent begins to tell Judy all about Diane, the 18 year old girl that has moved into Judy's old Carmel home with her multi-divorced mother.
Diane is a carefree beatnik who thinks the US is going to be bombed and just wants to have fun until then. She's given Kent a book of poetry written by one of her friends. He reads one of the poems to Judy which advocates having fun while also denouncing religion. Judy, who has spent the past month going through hardships, is disgusted with the poem, with Diane, and even with Kent. She tells him to take her home immediately where she talks to her mom and Tony about her disappointments with the cottages.
A few days later Tony insists on taking Judy to a shop in Carmel to show her something. The shop sells clothing and accessories for women but what Tony wants her to see is the tables and desks being used for display. They're made out of inexpensive rattan.
Now I didn't know what rattan was. When I had read this book before I had just imagined it as teakwood because I was under the very false impression that teakwood was inexpensive. Rattan is the stem of a palm and is used to make wicker furniture.
Tony and Judy are both excited to find an answer to their furniture problem. They track down the shops decorator who tells them she purchased the inexpensive furniture from a shop in Chinatown. So Judy plans a trip there with Kent who, more or less, invited himself along.
On the drive to San Francisco Kent nonchalantly tells Judy that Diane is also going to San Francisco that day. Kent becomes impatient while Judy looks at rattan furniture in the Chinatown shop so he wonders outside where he just happens to run into Diana. He tells Judy he's going with Diana, who is looking for some beads, for a half hour. He however doesn't come back so Judy just heads to her aunts where she and Kent are planning on staying the night. Once there Kent calls and excuses his absence by saying Diana had twisted her ankle and needed medical attention but he plans on coming right over to pick Judy up for dinner and dancing.
Throughout the night both seem content and very much in love. The night is quite late after they've finished their after-dinner dancing but Kent insists on going to one more place called The Red Cabbage. It turns out to be a beatnik dive and who else happens to be there but Diane. Judy feels Kent must have known Diane would be there, even though he denies it.
Diane and her friends are drinking alcohol and seventeen year old Judy feel uncomfortable by the idea of spending the evening with drunk strangers. This infuriates Kent who venomously turns on Judy. He then takes her home, having a hissy fit the whole way and deciding to stay somewhere else for the night. Judy tells him not to bother driving her back home tomorrow, planning on taking the train instead. However she quickly changes her mind when she realizes the train won't get her home until evening which will be too late to tell Tony about the success with the furniture.
The drive home the next day is eye opening and Judy realizes just how much she and Kent have changed in the last 6 months. Kent, who graduated last school year, has no plans for college, career, or anything except turning into a beatnik. Where as Judy is planning on using her last year of high school to set a path in life; she wants to get into a good collage, plan a career in interior decorating, and work with a number of volunteer groups including the Youth Center, American Field Service, California Scholarship Foundation, Future Homemakers of America, as well as continue her work as a Candy-Stripper. All of which Kent finds laughable.
Judy and Kent already had plans for going to the lodges dinner-dance next Saturday and Kent will be out of town until then so Judy puts him out of her mind for the time being. She spends time with Tony, working on the cottage, sailing in his boat, and hanging out with him and his friends. A new play is about to open at the Warf Theatre where Tony works so Judy host a pre-play party with her new friends Pat, Dick, Maria, Michael, Tony and his family, as well as her old best friend from Carmel, Kay and Kay's boyfriend Jerry.
After the play the young crowd goes to the Warf which is busy since it's Friday night. They go into a fish bar (not sure what that is) and are having fun dancing when Kent and Diane walk in together. Immediately spotting Judy, Kent waves and then makes a hasty exit pulling Diane along with him. This strange behavior confuses Judy and the next night on the way to the dance Judy asks Kent about it.
He says he and Diane were annoyed at how everyone was dancing and acting immature, stating that the jitterbugging girl Judy was with was the worst. Little does he realize the girl was Maria, the well known European actress. At the dance Maria shows up with Tony as her escort and Kent immediately starts salivating over her to which Judy has fun telling him she was the jitterbugging hoodlum Kent was disgusted by. Diane is also there and briefly tries to flirt with Tony who doesn't give her a second glance. That night Judy tells Kay that she's come to the realization that things between her and Kent are over.
The next more Judy heads out to the cottage to put the finishing touches on it with Tony. Tony opens up about his feelings for Judy and Judy reciprocates them. Then right as they've finished a newlywed couple shows up at the door asking if the cottage is for rent. Judy takes them to her mother and they work out a rental agreement for $100 a month. After the couple leaves Mrs. Princeton sits Judy and her brother, Flip, down to tell them she's been approached by a couple who want to buy the old Victorian house. The money would be enough for them to buy back their old Carmel home which Diane's mother is selling at a bargain because she wants to get out of Carmel because she claims it's "filled with squares". Judy, Flip, and Mrs. Princeton all agree that the house in Monterey is their home now and they chose to stay.
- The way Judy's mother speaks with her is interesting and sometimes strange. She asks Judy to make decisions and sometime almost even for permission for thing, such as asking Judy if they can go to the Urban Renewal meeting. Maybe this is because she just lost her husband and would normally have asked him these things. It just seems strange at times.
- I'm very confused on how the house and grounds of the Victorian house are suppose to look, as well as the cottages, or "shacks" as they are referred to. There is an illustration on the books end pages but it doesn't appear accurate. The house is apparently situated right next to the ocean, is on a somewhat busy corner, has streets behind it, but also is above rundown shacks inhabited by poorer residents. The cottages are also apparently the size of a studio home, as that's what Judy plans to rent them out as, but also portable and don't have bathrooms. Judy plans on building a bathroom onto it, mentioning this as if its as easy as hanging up curtains, and moving them to face the "other street" which I'm assuming is maybe the street behind the house? I don't know, I'm so confused by it.
- Judy never seems to miss her father. He only passed a month ago and yet she appears to have completed her grieving. Many people ask if she's the daughter of THE Phillip Princeton and she's always just like "mhm, yep". Never once getting teary eyed.
- Kent and Judy have been dating since she was 12 yet the second she's gone Kent falls for Diane. It makes it seem like Kent is basing his love life on proximity. Apparently he only dates whatever girl lives next door.
As luck would have it I just stumbled on this picture of an old play house. [x]
I'm wondering if this is similar to what the cottages look like since one was being used as a play house by Tony's little sister and because they're movable. Although the cottage is said to be small I didn't think it would be that small!
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