Porch party land

Xavier promises me that he's going to build me my dream house when he grows up (in between being an inventor, film director and goodness knows what else). My perfect imaginary house would have a belvedere. I once knew some students who lived in a glorious rambling Edwardian villa with a belvedere crowning the top of the house. It was a tiny room with a trapdoor in the floor which you opened to get down the tiny staircase to the floor below. But the room had windows all the way round and panoramic views over London. So although not big enough to be someone's regular bedroom it made the most wonderful guest bedroom. And although we don't really have the climate for it, my perfect imaginary house would also have a verandah. The verandahs on these Macon houses are the kind of thing that would do.