In Search of our Super-Powers A Mother and Daughter Adventure Series

Ellen: Our house is about 60 years old, but each of the rooms have been updated at varying times across its life. These updates don’t always correspond to each other, and some of them probably weren’t even popular at the time they happened so it’s a bit disjointed, but I find it charming. Our guest bathroom is not part of the charming. This bathroom is a world unto itself. The walls, ceiling, and fixtures are all in the vaguely pink and gold category paired against ocean blue tiles. Imbedded in the shower wall there is a meticulously crafted scene of a lighthouse surrounded by inlaid sea shells and sparkly stones. Oh, and the shower shrieks like a basilisk when a certain water pressure is achieved. I feel compelled to warn guests before they enter. Keeping the room very clean is the only way to mitigate the shock.

I’m pondering a phased renovation approach; trying to figure out what quick wins I can apply immediately, such as fresh paint and new light fixtures, versus more drastic intervention that will take longer (sledgehammering out the puzzling wall shells). After many recent trips to my local hardware store, I am slowly accumulating a clutch of paint samples as I attempt to perform color rescue alchemy. Inexplicably, Michael has decided not to get involved until I stop mumbling to myself.

Jane: Ellen has an entire bathroom to rescue but I only have a small, almond-size hole in the ceiling near the chimney in our living room. The flashing on the roof has been repaired already so how hard can a tiny hole be to fix?

Hard.

When I poke the hole, it opens wider in increasingly crumbly plaster until the almond turns into a coconut. Dean and I gaze at it together, pour some coffee, and google “plaster repair.” We are in luck. YouTube is full of good-looking young carpenters who explain and demonstrate exactly how to fix ceilings, and the holes are almost always over the fireplace.

After watching for a while, I say to Dean, “This is beyond me, but I can paint the ceiling when you’re done.

Dean doesn’t always appreciate my confidence in his abilities.

T The W he Wrriting R iting Retretreat: A No eat: Novvel el by Julia Bar tz (Atria)

"Alex and her ex-best friend, Wren, along with 3 other women are picked for a writing retreat with infamous author Roza Vallo. They must finish writing their books in a month's time, and the best one will be published. Roza is a mercurial task master, becoming stranger while the awe the women have for her turns to fear. This is an unusual horror stor y with many twists and turns "

Judy Gaynes Sebastian, Eastham Public Librar y, Eastham, MA

NoveList read-alike: The Dark Game by Jonathan Ganz