Adventures

Shining light on the removal of odd smells

Shelley

Our labor of love, aka, the apartment remodel from h*ll on a mound hill just got a tad better and a tad worse all in one day.

We happily discovered a fancy new odor removing machine, recommended by a person who is interested in renting the place once we’re done renovating it. Day 1 we only ran it for a couple of hours. And, oddly enough, it did make a slightly noticeable difference.

When we left yesterday, we ran it again and we’ll go back today to see if it continued to improve and remove the smoke smell. My fingers are crossed that it will do the trick!

And then there was some real life sh*t going on too. Well, let’s just say, it involves smells from depths below.

I’ve successfully completed washing all the wood walls on the upper main floor, and so began washing the walls in the basement. The renters had built their own rooms down there, and Mr. removed all the walls and now we need to repaint.

Note the floor to the left is dry.

After I wash them all first. Ew – yeah, smoke residual and spider webs on concrete walls is not fun to wash. I thought the wood was bad.

Gross is an understatement.

I did toss the adorable little curtain, it was so thick of spider webs and smoke, it’s not worth rescuing.

After that I swept up and bagged all of the debris on the floor.

Then got busy washing the walls. At least the walls were painted so the sponge sort of worked. We’ll paint the walls again, so they’re all one color. And I discovered nice cracks in the foundation walls that the renters hadn’t told us about, and plugged themselves with something before painting over them. And they didn’t tell us about mold either.

As I was about half way through the longest wall, I smelled something odd. I couldn’t believe that the cleaned walls would make things smell worse?

I glanced over to the water heater. Which by the way isn’t connected, we’re still working on the plumbing so we haven’t been running any water. I bring water with me to wash the walls with. But the adjacent rental unit is occupied. Hmm … a shower, dish washing, and three loads of laundry later and … water appeared in the empty apartment’s basement.

I double checked the previous picture I had taken and there wasn’t any water on the floor over there.

Sh*t.

That typically means one nasty thing.

A backed up septic system.

And no pumping company is open on Labor Day weekend. They’ll be by first thing on Tuesday.

To save some of the unplanned for costs, the renter and Mr. dug out the second part of the system so that it’ll be easier for the pumping company to do their slurping up the gunk thing.

Teamwork.
Concrete covers are not light.

With some sharp thinking it was physics to the rescue.

Thank goodness for a surplus of supplies to do the dirty deeds.
We suspect the people that emptied the other apartment after the renter passed away, flushed things they shouldn’t have into the septic system. There were paper floaters of band aid proportions.

We double checked that both baffles were blocked and the drain pipe across the yard was completely dry, so yeah … a backed up septic system.

And a tiny vole (which I didn’t capture) crawled its way through a tunnel in the lower right hand corner to escape the smells too. Yikes … gross …

At least we did get some work done on the inside of the apartment. We were both busy bees.

See the tiny ground bee in the center of the photo? I wonder how large of a nest their labor of love is?

Mr. has made great looking strides on the bathroom wall boards, just need to seal up seams, put on trim, finish painting the other walls, and then we’ll be able to hook up the water.

We’re thankful that I was working in the basement and noticed the smell of the backed up water. I hope the ozone machine helps with that smell too!

Post Inspiration – Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Sharp and Lens-Artists #113 hosted by Rusha Sams of Oh The Places We See Rusha has a beautiful selection of photos, do check it out!

PS – I hope you’re all having a wonderful and safe holiday weekend! What fun do you have planned?

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

43 thoughts on “Shining light on the removal of odd smells”

  1. Shelley, I am so sorry you are having to deal with this mess. The ozone machine will help some I am sure. We use one at the church to help purify the air after each service as part of the covid cleaning. Hopefully your next renter will be more conscious of the correct way to live on someones property. Best of luck. Work so far looks great.

    1. Thanks, Anita. This place may just be the last chapter in our book we should write. That’s good news to hear the Ozone machine works at your church. My fingers are crossed that it does help in our place.

  2. Oh my gosh, I’m sorry you guys are having to deal with this mess, Shelley! Your renter is very nice, offering to help your husband. I never would have thought to use an ozone generator for the smoke, I really hope it will take out all of that smoke stench.

    Renting smokers need to respect your property, and step outside! Maybe that should be in the contract? In Michigan, I used Rid-X in the system, it stops the system from backing up because of the bacteria in it. I hope your weekend gets better! 😎

    1. Yeah, it’s quite the mess we’re dealing with.
      Yeah, we’re hoping to not rent to smokers.Period.
      I don’t know if we’ve tried Rid-X before or not?
      We’re kind of numb to the challenges. We keep plugging (literally) away! LOL

  4. Holy smokers! What a mess. You have way more tenacity than I would, but then again, what can you do, eh? Gotta keep going now.

    We were always worried about the septic in our other house, although we never had a problem with it. I think because DH is a sailor, he had some horror stories about his holding tank leaking on a boat and was adamant about septic issues. I wasn’t that paranoid, but I did think about it periodically. City water and sewer were big selling point to me on the new house. People laugh, but it’s true. LOL.

    So nasty of your renters to flush crazy things. Hope it all gets cleared up quickly.

    1. LOL – yes, holy smokers is right. This is the place that will push us to the next journey of selling the places (we/I hope!). We’re almost done, the smoke smell is gone.
      Yes, septic systems can be tricky, especially when renters don’t tell you they’re having issues until it’s an emergency. DH is smart to stay on top of it. And you’re smart to want city water/sewer. Although, we have city apartments too and water issues due to the city not removing trees. Roto-Rooter is on speed dial in our cellphones. Sigh.
      The sewer is all cleared up, we just need to buy and install an extension for the holding tank. That’s low priority at the moment.
      Thank you for sharing your thoughts – it’s so nice to hear from you. PS – your grandbaby is sooooooooo ADORABLE! xx

  5. Oh, my. Your post has me thinking of similar homeowner problems we’ve encountered, and I can certainly relate to the fact that sometimes these problems get worse before they get better! Thankfully, you seem to be flushing out (literally) what the problems are and getting in touch with the right people — a labor of love both for you and for those who serve in the fixer-upper category. Thanks for posting and linking to the Lens-Artists challenge. Here’s to better days ahead!

    1. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. LOL – yes, we’re flushing out the problems, one right after another until they’re all clear. Thanks for hosting the challenge. Cheers to you and better days to come for all of us!

  6. I’m so sorry to see this development. You guys have been working so hard to get these places ready to rent. I hope this goes according to a good plan.

    1. Thanks Dan, it was just another obstacle among many. We’re getting so close, though. We can almost taste victory.

  7. Hi Shelley, oh wow is this “work”
    and I hope the ozone machine works.
    —
    this might only help a little – but putting baking soda on plates can pull odors – esp mildew and smoke
    —
    also – activated charcoal!
    they have cubes and bags with bricks in them –
    but I would buy a huge bag of it and put it in bowls as well.
    or not –
    best wishes as you do problem solve

    and hope you are have a nice month in site of this 🙂

    1. Thank you, Yvette! So nice to hear from you, I appreciate your helpful tips. We haven’t tried those yet, so far all of the things we’ve done (it’s a looooooong list) have worked to get rid of the smell. We had my mother-in-law review the place, her nose knows best – “I don’t smell smoke at all!” YIPPEE!! We’re looking forward to the “DONE” moment. Soon!

  8. This is definitely a labor of love, Shelley. Wow. What a huge amount of work. The renovation of the bathroom is impressive, though. You’re making great strides. I hope the septic problem is quickly resolved on Tuesday. As you say….yuck.

    1. Yes, indeed it’s a labor of love, Patti. Thank you for the encouragement. The septic system was resolved, and we went on to painting multiple layers until the yellow ceilings were white. On the home stretch now, we hope.

  9. Yikes! I bet it feels like a never-ending nightmare. I’ve never had to deal with a septic tank (thank goodness) but it doesn’t sound like fun. I hope it gets taken care of on Tuesday (why do these things always happen on long weekends?).

    1. Yikes, is right. This is one heck of a nightmare project. The septic system was resolved with two vendors for a total of about $800. Sigh. Emergencies for rentals always happen on long weekends and holidays. I look forward to being done so I can catch up on blog reading and fun stuff – like your story!

  14. Oh my gosh that’s so nasty! You guy sure have a lot of fortitude. It’s one thing to clean up after yourselves, but other people… super gross. Best of luck to you!

    1. Nasty is right – and YES it is NOT fun cleaning up after others. When we get to the point where we feel like we’d live there or let our kids live there we know we’ve gotten past the super gross stage! LOL!

  15. Well, that’s a gross development in the renters from hell series that you will be writing someday. It is a very good thing you happened to notice the leaking. I grew up in houses with septic tanks that had constant issues and I swore I would never buy a house with septic. You have my sympathies. On the other hand, the bathroom wall is looking great 🙂

    1. Yes, it has been the place from h*ll that will launch the book series that’ll pay for the cost involved. In my dreams, that is. When I asked Mr. if he wanted to help write the book, he said, “I’m busy doing other things right now.” Duh! LOL.

  16. That long-gone renter has become the gift that keeps on giving – NOT! It does sound like a project from h*ll and the only good news is that you have someone who might be ready to rent it after the clean-up and renovations are done.

    1. Yes, indeed. Oh, yeah, well … that potential renter backed out. Works out though, the flooring is taking longer than planned. With the housing boom in our area all handyman services are booked up so we’ve had to do the work ourselves. Thus the unfinished status a month later. Soon, though, it’ll be DONE!

  17. Sorry to hear about the septic tank issue. It’s a good job you found it when you did. You find all sorts of surprises when your renovating. It will look great when you’ve finished it .

    1. Thanks, Julie. Yes, it was good to find out when we did. It’s looking so nice now, soon it’ll be done enough to rent it.

  18. Hey Shelley, hoping that you are just busy having fun and that all is well with you and the Mr. Realized I hadn’t seen a post in a while. Just checking in.

    1. Aw, Janet, thank you so much for checking in. We’re okay – just been devoting all free time to the project from h*ll. I look forward to the days when I can catch up on reading blogs and writing again! I hope you’re well too. xx

  19. Shelley, I hope you got your mess cleaned up, but what an effort this has taken between smoke, mold and a backed-up septic. You haven’t blogged in a month, so I hope you’re simply too busy and that you and family are well.

    1. Hi Mary, thanks for checking in! We’re so close now, it’ll be done hopefully before the snow flies. LOL. Yes, I’ve been using all free time to devote to the project and catch up on stuff around home. I hope your retirement is going well and that you’ve been able to go on many bike rides. My work-life is just as busy as my after-work life. The retirement idea looks quite inviting! 🙂

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