Home Improvements

So finally it is warm; I mean BEACH warm and everyone's windows are open to let the fresh air in. It was the perfect Saturday for Steve to get into his home improvement projects he has been dying to do. His first project at 9:00 am was to unclog the bathtub's slow drain. I called him while he was out on his cell phone and asked him to pick up some Drain0 to do the job. He came home with a product recommended from Ace Hardware instead. Stuff the "real plumbers use." So he began working on our tub pouring the miracle potion down the tub drain. Not 10 seconds later an odd, unpleasant smell entered the living room. When it got progressively worse we decided we'd check the label. Mystery solved! The miracle product he bought contained sulfuric acid and yes it SMELLED...BAD! Alex was having a sleepover and enjoying a movie with her friend, Emilie, Sophie, and Matt when the smell made its way into their noses. They were out of here! They just sat in the shade outside while I tried to mask the smell with PineSol - bad idea. Eventually, the kids came back in and decided the solution was to spray sickeningly sweet Strawberry Splash perfume in every corner of the house - another bad idea. We were stuck in an invisible cloud of rotten eggs,pine trees, and strawberry syrup. The smell combination was undescribable, until a neighboor came over, poked his head in, and said, "It smells like popcorn." Interesting take on it, I thought.

Within the hour, the smell was in the street. Our poor neighbors with their high hopes of fresh air pouring through their open windows :( It was bad. Luckily, we spent the day at Matt's soccer game followed by lunch in an air conditioned restaurant and finishing with beach time with our friends afterwards. Hopefully, we were the cause of all the neighborhood getting out and enjoying the day. Hopefully memories were made that wouldn't have been if not for our home improvement efforts...hopefully :)