That smell…

We knew we cleaned the entire house, yet we kept smelling just the slightest whiff of something. Most times it was as we opened up the basement door, or were headed downstairs. Cat? Mold? Something. We checked everything. Especially as we had a cat get back into the house about two weeks ago. Nothing. I just figured it was a ‘ghost’ stink. Dan on the other hand…. kept looking.

He’s been mapping the house in order to understand where everything is, goes and relates to. For example, the kitchen, breakfast nook, part of the dining and living room and hall all wrap around two chimneys that are side by side. It makes for an interesting ‘space’, that you might assume is a dead space. It isn’t. He checked the laundry room and chute. Yes, it has a chute that goes from the upstairs hall linen closet to the downstairs laundry room. Yes, all of my boys went down it at one time or another. It’s musty, but that wasn’t the smell.

Finally, Dan realized that the basement has one space he hadn’t looked at or inspected. The basement stairs has a right angled turn. four steps, two triangular steps turning right and then four more. While we replaced the top four, my ex and co. replaced the bottom four. He could only stand under the top four as the bottom are closed off. So, he pulled one tread, thinking he’d be able to look under and see what it was like.

Meanwhile, I’m upstairs working in the kitchen. We got the breakfast nook 95% done. I was working on cupboard doors when I hear him cuss. Then I hear boards being removed and Dan hollers for a trash can and bleach. Yes, he’d found the source of the smell. Trash, dirt, mold, a plastic crate they’d used as a step, and of course… cat shit. 90 minutes later, the area was shoveled, swept, and sanitized. Then he put the stairs back together.

Unbelievable.