DR. WALLACE: My 14-year-old daughter has treasure hunt fever! Apparently some of her friends introduced her to treasure hunting, and some of the other parents allowed five girls to go through their homes, looking for various "treasures" that were hidden and stashed away at various places in their family homes.

Now my daughter wants to host a treasure hunt at our house, but honestly, I'm quite uncomfortable with this idea. It's not my idea of a good time for five teenage girls to be snooping through every crevice of our house! I haven't given my daughter an answer yet. I told her in the moment that I would think about it.

But now that I have thought about it, I'd prefer not to do this. I know once I announce this to her that she's going to throw a fit, pout and complain about it incessantly. What do you think about this idea overall? Do you feel I'm out of line for not wanting a treasure hunt to be held in my home? — Not Interested in Snoopers, via email

NOT INTERESTED IN SNOOPERS: Well, we are still in the warm season of summer, so this might present you an opportunity, if you are up for it, to have a treasure hunt limited to your backyard if you have one, or your garage if one is available at your home. Of course, this is all subject to your approval, as you may feel similarly about teen girls going through your garage the same way you might be sensitive inside of your home.

But if you do have a backyard, that might be an area where your daughter could creatively come up with unique places to hide things and make it more of an outdoor adventure so that it would be unique as compared to the other treasure hunts inside of various homes.

If none of this works for you, perhaps try some reconnaissance in your local area to see if there's a local park you could utilize for this purpose. Hopefully it could be held early in the morning on a weekend, perhaps a Saturday, and there shouldn't be too much traffic at a park other than people out to walk their dogs if you could arrange an early start! You could even offer to get up early with your daughter to help her stash the treasures, then you could offer to pick all the girls up at their homes once you're ready. Road trip! This might solve your situation uniquely and memorably for the girls.

HIS VARNISH BUSINESS CONFLICTS WITH MY PARENT'S CARS!

DR. WALLACE: I'm a 20-year-old female and I've been an interested bystander watching my 17-year-old brother debate our parents regarding his latest hobby/business venture.

He's a pretty talented high school baseball player, and even though they use aluminum bats in high school games these days, he loves practicing with his friends and going to the batting cages, using an older wooden bat that is his absolute favorite. Well, this summer it turns out he was practicing one weekend and the bat got fractured. I say "fractured," not broken, because it didn't break into a lot of pieces, but it did get a hairline fracture about a third of the length of the bat up from the handle.

One of his friends told him to hammer some really small nails into the bat, exactly an inch apart and then to sand it down so that the nails don't stick out at all, as they end up flush with the wood. He crafted this perfectly, and then because the handle of the bat was sanded, he went looking for some varnish to re-stain his bat back to a more natural color. Apparently, he found some old brand of varnish from the 1960s in an antique store somewhere, and it did the job perfectly on his bat.

His girlfriend asked him if he could use that varnish on an old piece of furniture she had, and he gave it a try, and the furniture came out absolutely perfect after he applied the varnish with his strong "elbow grease" and a few rags. He and his girlfriend liked it so much, they started looking for old furniture that he could "rehab," and before too long they were getting orders from around the neighborhood. One thing led to another, and he started buying or finding cheap furniture all over the place, adding his magic varnish to it and touching things up. Before too long, our family garage was more than full with furniture!

Now he's arguing with my parents, saying that he needs to use the garage to have space to hold his "inventory!" and that they should park their cars on the street! Is there any way I can be a peacemaker between my adventurous brother and my unhappy parents regarding this matter? — His Varnish is Now a Business, via email

HIS VARNISH IS NOW A BUSINESS: Do some quick research on your own in your local area. See if there are any antique stores or consignment furniture shops that you can go out and visit in person. Explain that your family has a small business restoring furniture, and that you may have some interesting items to place in their stores. Ask how their business works, what percentage of the sale the store takes, how the payments are made and what everyone's responsibilities are.

If you can find a few locations like this, your brother and his girlfriend could place some of their pieces in consignment shops in the hopes that they would sell in the near future, and this would alleviate some of the storage problem.

Another suggestion you should make to your brother and his girlfriend is that they should seek the best possible and most popular items to rehabilitate, not simply every old piece of furniture that they lay eyes on. Selectivity is the key and as they go along. If they are successful, they should develop an eye for what sells the best and be patient and only pull the trigger on certain items that make the most sense to invest the time, energy and yes, storage space for.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Markus Winkler at Unsplash