Just Debbie: This and That

Unfortunately so much time has past since my last post, I don't even know where to begin to update all that has happened in the last few months! When I last posted, I was painting the trim in the old "new" house. All of the trim has been finally finished. It looks nice, but oh my what a huge task it was! Once the inside painting was finished the next chore to tackle was the garage. What a job. The family that rented our home kept a dog in my garage. I was unaware of the horrible odor that awaited us when we returned to the house. It has taken me over 16 months to eliminate the odor, a great deal of time, effort, money, and headaches (literally and figuratively!) We of course immediately cleaned the garage with every possible kind of cleaner you can imagine. It helped, but the odor lingered on. We then had the walls painted by a professional (supposedly, but it wasn't done very well) and we treated the floor to another epoxy coating. We took off the rubber gasket to the garage door. We used air fresheners (many different kinds!). We replaced the moldy wall caused by a broken water heater. (replaced the water heater as well.) Removed the utility sink and had the pipes looked at as they appeared to be leaking, and removed the wood cabinet next to the utility sink that appeared to be rotted due to the leaky pipes. All this was done in order to put the house on the market. While the smell was better, I still was not satisfied, but since I was not going to live here, I decided I had done the best I could do. Besides, the only one that was really bothered by the odor was me! Well, when the decision was made to move back here, I immediately started to pray about how we could eliminate this odor (and the one under the kitchen sink, but that's a whole other story!). God was either going to have to eliminate it for me, help me not to be bothered by it, or help us find a way to get rid of it. Well, it did not miraculously disappear, I was still bothered by it, and the only option left was to somehow fix it. Soooo, All the trim was sanded and painted, every possible surface was primed with a shellacked (Zinser primer, supposed to block odors and stains), all the surfaces were repainted, the ceiling was repainted, and the floor was again painted with epoxy paint and a clear coat on top. We put the clear coat on top this weekend and the major work has finally been completed. It has been a long, discouraging, tearful, and exhausting ordeal but I believe...THE ODOR APPEARS TO BE GONE!!!!!!!!