The War Against Odor

I realize that before I can post on the joys of primer some context is needed. The house Lori and I bought was built in 1985 - the foundation and infrastructure are in great condition, and the interior is very presentable. Well - they were very presentable. There is only one problem with the house: the past occupants were smokers. So most of the work we've started doing is part of an effort to remove the smoke smell from the house.

Thus we have started redecorating the living room completely despite having not even unpacked. Our goal is to remove the smoke smell by completely replacing all of the hard surfaces in the living room.

I do wish there were some kind of (cheap) scientific odor measurement device we could use...it's very hard to tell if we're making relative progress because the smell becomes less apparent when we've been in the house for a while, have the windows open, or use anything that has its own smell, like primer or bleach.

So as we work on our poor living room I will just keep telling myself...the war on odor will be a long one, with many sacrifices. We have to fight odor in the living room so we do not have to fight it in the bedroom. We go to bed with the smell we have, not the smell we want...