Sunday, July 20, 2008

Nice!

My trip to heaven in a wheelbarrow hit a little bump last week. On thursday, our lovely water heater decided to spring a leak. The flood that ensued spread out into Ginger's room on one side, and through the wall the other way to dampen (okay, soak) the carpet outside the girls bathroom. Nice!

The good part (yes, there is a good part!) in all of this is that the landlord responded quickly and we had a new water heater installed the next day (and, since we're renters, there was no money out of our pocket--see? Good!). 

The bad part, is that the moistening of the carpet padding and the surrounding wall seems to have released the old tobacco smells that had been disguised by paint and carpet. So, all attempts to dry the flooded area have resulted in a nasty cigarette smoke/must smell being spread throughout the downstairs! Once again, nice! 

So, I have to decide how to best take care of the problem, without making all of our downstairs belongings stink to high heaven. Those of you who are aware of what a sensitive nose I have must know what a dilemma I am facing. Which is worse...stale cigarette smoke or increasing mustiness? Both so nice! I feel such guilt at sending Ginger back in there to sleep, but it will have to happen one of these days.

2 comments:

Tamsen said...

I'm so sorry! Reading this brought back memories of living in Tennessee. I did everything I could think of to get rid of the horrible smoke smell in our rental. Have you tried baking soda on the carpet? Good luck.

The Laundry Queen said...

I piled the baking soda on before we left for church today, but ran out. First thing on my list for tomorrow is to buy more (along with getting the handle fixed on the back door of our minivan--can't go on a big vacation without access to the back!) I can now smell the stale smoke being spread by the central air! Why do they all have to be in the same place?