....than the smell of cigarette smoke infused throughout your home that is. Let me back up a smidge here.When we looked at our apartment the landlord was priming, painting, and putting in new flooring. It smelled like...paint and sawdust. We didn't look close enough and he didn't tell us the previous tenants smoked like a chimney...IN THE APARTMENT!
When we moved in we could smell stale cigarette smoke. We didn't know where it was coming from because literally every wall, ceiling, door and piece of trim had been primed and painted, all carpets removed and laminate installed...and hardwood is in the other rooms. We thought maybe it was wafting in through the windows from the neighbors.
But then it became very apparent that it was indeed coming from our apartment. Remember that 40 days of rain? Well, the house being all closed and it being extremely humid made the smoke smell start oozing out from everywhere!
I researched how to get rid of smoke smell and aside from priming and painting the tips were to clean every non-painted surface with a degreaser. With degreaser in hand I started to tackle every non-painted surface. As I got going I realized how many there were and as I started to get up close and personal with them I realized that every single one of them was covered in a thick, sticky, dingy layer of nicotine tar!!!!! UUUUGGGHHHH!
Needless to say I went crazy. It only took me my ENTIRE Friday and Saturday non-stop!
Here's what I scrubbed down:
- 4 light fixtures
- 2 ceiling fans - had to disassemble these gems to get to every nook and crany
- 8 lightswitch plates
- 2 smoke detectors
- All the kitchen cabinetry which includes 16 doors, 7 drawers and an island
- All the counter tops
- The floors (5 rooms total) that aren't brand new flooring
- 15 windows - and all of their evil, crevice-filled vinyl window casings which were the nastiest!
- Ella's entire closet...floor to ceiling...TWICE (because it HAD NOT been primed and painted)
- And then...THEN there were the mini blinds. Disgusting, yellow, sticky, tar stained banes of my existence! I de-greased them, hosed them down. Scrubbed them, hosed them down, then soaked them in bleach. STILL NASTY.
It's 7:30 Sat. night. I feel disgusting! I am covered in sticky nicotine tar residue and chemicals from the cleaners. I literally just saw one of my neighbors (who is 6-months pregnant) smoking a cigarette! Oh my gosh...I'm not even going to type the words I am thinking right now! Wow. Stick a fork in me, I'm done. I sincerely hope your Friday and Saturday were better than mine!
3 comments:
Oh man girl- I am feeling for you. I agree that there is ABSOLUTLY nothing worse than the smell of cigarette smoke (okay, the skunk was pretty bad- but that at least fades)! Sounds like you went to town though and hopefully that will do the trick! I'll remember to put that on my mental checklist of questions in case we ever move!
Oh, that's disgusting. I'm so sorry you are having to live with that smell. I hope all your scrubbing got it out. If not, tell the landlord you want a refund! He definitely should have disclosed that the previous tennants smoked, especially since it was advertised as a non-smoking apartment, wasn't it? That's false advertising!
Now go listen to some of that sweet baby laughter to calm your soul. :-)
SO, Did it work??? I'm dying for the follow up here.
It is this kind of thing, that just makes me want to scream "Why can't people follow the rules?!"
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