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Owning an Older House Wheel of Chance. Today we’re going to play “OhMyGod, What’s that Smell?!” and the related game of “How Much Will it Cost Me to Fix It?”

I love lots of things about my house: the location, the floor plan, the arched entry ways, our big bedroom, lots of storage space, big (enough) kitchen…
There are things I don’t like though and they all seem to revolve around odors.
After we moved in I was able to identify quite a few and eliminate them — like the Fry Daddy up in a cabinet in the kitchen with old oil, or the grease filter under the microwave (sticky And stinky!) The basement carpet loves to smell mildewy in the summer, but the dehumidifier takes care of that problem.
Today, however, was completely unexpected.

I was standing in my bathroom contemplating putting towels away when I smelled something. What is that, I wondered and I started feeling the linens in the cabinet. Damp. But how? Why? Where?
I started pulling things out and feeling and smelling them. I was soon overwhelmed by the musty odor of mildew and mold. I emptied the closet, threw away a kitchen-sized garbage bag full of linens that couldn’t be saved or weren’t worth the effort to save. The rest got to meet the Sanitary cycle on our washer. Hooray for the sanitary cycle! Once the closet was empty, I lysoled the whole damn closet and we left for ChuckECheese (but that’s another post.)

As it turns out, our upstairs bathroom is leaking into our downstairs bathroom closet. We think that we need to re-attach some tiles and re-grout and caulk the tub and the problem will be fixed. We may have to resort to more drastic measures, none apparently related to actual plumbing problems.

I spent my evening scraping off peeled paint, washing the mildew stains on the ceiling and walls with bleach, mopping the floor and wiping down the closet shelves. Our bathroom closet now smells vaguely of Lysol, bleach, and just a tiny hint of mustiness. We think drying the closet out completely will solve the problem as long as we don’t use our shower until we’ve fixed the leaky problem.

It could have been worse, really. We only lost some old and ugly oven mitts, the ugly window treatments that we removed when we had our windows re-done and a leather cloth. The linens I cared about actually came through the wash without any problems. At least it was the linen closet and not the games closet. Now that would have been a true disaster!

Be sure to stay tuned for future editions Old Home Owners Trivia. You can expect to see upcoming rounds of:
1)Mike learns how to regrout a bathtub
2)Oh F*&k, I totally messed up the tub, we have to call a contractor
And the related games of
2a)It’s Going to Cost HOW MUCH?! (damnit)
2b)In for a penny, in for a pound — HEY, lets add that bathroom fan and a new low-flow toilet while we’re at it!

I like owning my old house and we knew there were issues that would need our attention (wiring/power, basement plumbing stacks, hot water heater, furnace, water softener, windows, front door/porch), but I just hate how they seem to manifest when we can least afford them.