In addition to my normal activities of late (designing, designing, and designing) I have also been dealing with an interesting problem at home. A couple of days ago DH and I noticed a bad smell coming from the couch. When I say bad, I mean BAD. The only thing I could think would cause this smell was that of a small, dead, decaying animal. The arm was what smelled the most, maybe a little mouse got inside and couldn’t get out?
We sprayed Fabreeze, we coated the fabric with baking soda, we put out a bowl of vinegar, we opened the windows…all with only minimal effect. We realized that we would have to open the couch to remove this smell. Luckily the arm is hollow and it was easy to remove some staples and get inside. We did this one day to find…nothing. Nothing at all was inside. But now that we had moved the couch and tipped it over, the smell seemed to be coming not from the couch, but from the wall.
Perhaps the mouse had died in the wall and the smell was just streaming out between the couch and end table. We had been deceived. So, we moved the couch to the open window and lit some candles by the wall. With the window open and candles burning, it wasn’t so bad.
Sunday we went to Lowes to pick up more candles and a staple gun (to reupholster the couch). Back home, DH wanted to check outside to make sure the dead smell wasn’t a larger beast that had died curled up next to the house. We went around to the side of the house. I was expecting to find a raccoon or opossum but instead we found …nothing…except the smell…and the gas meter.
Lightbulb moment. I made some calls and eventually got our gas company to come out to find the leak. Yes, we had a gas leak. The smell of rotten flesh is actually the smell they add to the gas so that you can detect a leak. We are so lucky to not have blown ourselves up, what with lighting candles and all. Wow, just wow. So lucky. And now we know what it smells like…and next time (hopefully there is never a next time) we will know to call the gas company right away.
