You might remember a bit ago Kelli popped in here at the blog to tell you that her and her husband Jason had bought a new house. Â They did…only problem, they actually bought a farm and the house just came with the farm. Â For you who don’t live in farm country, you might not know quite how this can work. Â For Kelli’s situation it worked like this….
The owner of a farm approached Jason and asked if he was interested in buying the farm. Â He told him that the building site would come with it. Â Jason said yes. Â Well the owner had a renter living in the house so they gave the renter until the end of the year to move out. Â As a child Jason had been in the house lots…but he hadn’t been in there for well over five years and Kelli had never been in it.
Jason bought the farm without Kelli being able to see the inside of the house. Â Here’s a peak at the outside of the house.
Kelli and Jason heard that the renters had bought a house and were moving the first of November. That got Kelli excited thinking she’d be able to paint and be in the house by Thanksgiving. Â Well something happened with the abstract for the house the renters were moving into. Â The whole process got delayed.
and delayed…and delayed.
About last week, Kelli was extremely frustrated as she again had heard that the family was moving and again heard that she could see the house soon…yet it didn’t happen.
Thursday night as we were in the middle of moving the flooring boards Kelli got a call that the house could be seen. Â Kelli and I hopped into the truck and went to look.
The house isn’t huge but it’s not small either. Â There are four bedrooms. Â The kitchen is HUGE. Â Really HUGE. Â It’s definitely a big farm kitchen that has plenty of eat in space. Â She is changing out some light fixtures, cleaning and painting but other than that, she’ll be ready to move in. Â She does need a new dish washer and there is a little wallpaper in the kitchen that was used as a back splash that she’s taking out but honestly, she can easily have the house move in ready in a week.
The biggest downfall…the renters had cats in the garage and it really smells like cat pee really bad. Â Anyone have any suggestions for that? Â We read something about putting baking soda down, letting it sit and then sweeping it up. Â We’d love to hear if any of you had experience with that.
Watch the blog for photos and things Kelli is doing with her house…she’ll likely be sharing some.
I love your Blog, never miss a day reading it. I am a fairly new quilter and I use Maxi Lock thread for everything piecing, quilting, and even garment sewing. I mainly sew donation quilts and like to get the most for my money. Thank you for your free patterns and sharing your family with us.
Some times people put charcoal to get rid of smells I never have tried it ,
I cleaned calf barns growing up. (Yuccko). Power wash with a livestock disinfectant. That will remove a lot of it but I would spray the bottom 3 feet of the walls with a weed sprayer filled with diluted bleach for good measure. You might want to put a space heater in there for a few days to dry it out since the weather is on the chilly side.
Good news for Kelli! Four bedrooms will be great. I imagine she’ll use one for a sewing room. :) At least the cat smell is just in the garage.
So happy for Kelli !! She must be “over the moon ” Good for her !! Tell her to search the internet, there;s tons of info about removing odors there !
Tell Kelli the only thing I have found is Odoban, it took the cat smell out of the grout in my breeze way. I think you can get at Wal-mart, if not there, Sam’s Club.
Clean the floor as well as you can and then sprinkle lime all over. Leave it for several days without disturbing it. I think that will do the job. We had a similar situation with dog pee that went thru carpet. The smell was gone. Debbie in WV
So happy for Kelli and her hubby. Now for the fun stuff. Good luck with the nasty smells. Looking forward to seeing your new place.
A friend who worked maintenance at an apartment complex saidnthe only thing that worked for him was apple cider vinegar-an alkaline solution to offset the acid in the cat urine. And it will take more than one application. Good luck!
Cat pee odor is a tough one. Try the suggested methods, then maybe seal and paint. At least in a garage there isn’t carpet to rip out. One of the units in the apartment building down the street from us had cats that peed all over. After the tenant was evicted the cleaning person cleaned and cleaned, finally they ripped the carpet out and she scrubbed and scrubbed the cement floor underneath, sealed it, painted it over and put in new carpet. The current tenant says she can still smell it when the weather is hot & humid. Which is why so many rental places say “no pets” I guess. Sounds like the house is pretty decent and Kelli is lucky there.
If the floor is cement you can scrub it with a solution of tri sodium phosphate. You can get it at some paint stores or places that sell to comercial cleaners.
Odorban from Sam’s works great on smells.
Try using hydrogen perioxide on it. She may need to pour it on the areZ and use a old broom and scrub it in. Let of dry . I have tried that on carpet when my digs and cats have accidents and there is no odor
The internet is full of information about removing animal urine odor. Most use baking soda, 3% peroxide and dish washing liquid. Hope she can get rid of that odor and enjoy her new home!
a car detailer told me to use ground coffee on vehicle seats to get the smell out. It worked for me. You might try that! I cleaned the seat first as best I could with some upholstery cleanter, then I covered the car seats with a thin layer of ground coffee, left it for about 36 hours and then vacuumed it up.
We had a at that missed the litter box a lot. Once she went to live elsewhere, I used hydrogen peroxide on the hardwood floor. I put it in a spray bottle and there was even some bubbling on the first application. You’d never know we’d had a cat/litterbox in that room now.
Odoban works great. Leaves behind a very pleasant scent. I also used it in my washer to wash smelly dog bedding, and it left things smelling wonderful. Lost my dog in August. Miss him every single minute of everyday.
A mat for kneeling on, rubber gloves, a scrubbing brush, hot soapy water with bleach, lots of elbow grease and effort.
My son bought a house that had a terrible cat smell in the closet. Several things tried but nothing worked until the floors were painted with Kilz. No odor now.
You need an enzyme cleaner. Check Amazon. Pressure wash first. Then cleaner. Soak wood and any washboard ax well as cement. Put a dehumidifier in there for a couple . Of weeks. Worked for me.
We used lime in the calf pens every time a calf was moved. Sprinkle lime powder and leave a few days. Sweep. Then apply vinegar solution with elbow grease :-)
I would not cover with paint. That could seal in any remaining deep stuff.
Yea Kelli!!! Enjoy making the farmhouse your HOME SWEET HOME :-)
we had the same problem when one of our tenants moved out of our house cat urine in the garage we ended up power washing with bleach and it got rid of it I don’t like to use bleach and I would definitely use a mask when doing it but it worked never had a problem again
oh i love following your journey with the new house, and i am looking forward to seeing Kelli’s journey with her new house! i can not help you with ideas on how to get rid of the urin smells from the cats….sorry!
Buckeye Scenturion——-This is a odor killer…..no perfume or after odor. Used it several years ago and have painted the concrete since……no cat odor. HIghly recommended.
Can’t wait to watch updates of Kelli’s house and see both her’s and yours Jo when all finished
vinegar is the only thing I know that will take the smell out and keep it out, the sad thing is because they let them pee on things, if she gets a cat and does not get that smell out her cat will start to mark too. GOD bless.
Kelli can find the places the cats used because the urine will glow under a “black light”. I have always been told to treat the glowing patches with 1/3 mixture of vinegar and distilled water. I believe it is supposed to be the apple cider vinegar and not the white vinegar. you spritz the vinegar mixture & leave it. The vinegar smell should be gone by the next day and so should the urine smell. If the urine smell is still there, spritz again. Vinegar should not hurt the concrete as long as it is diluted.
My house had a cat problem. The smell was in the floors and in the walls. Replaced the dry wall, cut out some of the floor boards and replaced with new. Applied KILZ on every floor (2 floors) twice in order to solve the problem. Also applied KILZ to the walls. A lot of work, but, it solved the problem. Once the urine is in the wood or walls, it stays and has to be removed. Good luck!
I have 18 cats. I use undiluted white vinegar, with great success, to clean up after them. The baking soda /peroxide /dish washing soap for washing dogs who’ve been sprayed by a skunk.
I would pour straight bleach all over the concrete and just let it soak in. We did that in an old house in the basement when the sewer backed up.