Solving for X: 28

When I think about my mother's home, I think about food. The smell of cooking or baking almost always permeates the house. When I lived at home, my mom always prided herself on making a home-cooked meal most weeknights, even though she worked. She used to have hundreds of copies of Bon Appetite, which were often marked up with her notes or corrections, and when I moved away to college, she mailed me photocopies of her favorite easy recipes, with notes. I still have these recipes. 

My grandmother's home was very cluttered. There were lots of bedrooms, and some hidden closets and crawl spaces, and a HUGE basement. And everywhere I looked, there was mail, broken appliances, old cars (in the basement), etc. There were also treasures--like photo albums, clothes, and books (like the out-of-print Happy Hollister series). I remember always being excited to have the opportunity to explore, but if felt like I could easily get lost.