Have you ever experienced a random fish smell in your house?
I can think of a million more glamorous topics to discuss today but my hubby and I recently learned a really important lesson that could have potentially been tragic. If you choose to ignore 99% of what I say, please let this be the 1% that you DO pay attention to.
Phew. Thank goodness that was an easy math equation.
All jokes aside, this is the story of The Killer Boob.
For real, I told you all jokes aside.
I wanted to share this story in case you ever have or ever do experience
the "mystery fish odor" in your home. 9 times out of 10 the culprit is probably something most of you had never thought of and it's something you shouldn't ignore!
A few weeks ago, we started to experience a strange fishy smell on our upstairs landing right outside of the bedrooms. I first caught whiff of it when I was unsuccessfully
"trying" to get Little B ready for bed.
At first I thought maybe I was imagining the smell but my hubby smelled it too.
You know how when a wife goes missing the police immediately start questioning the husband? Well, when a parent smells something funky you immediately start questioning the personal hygiene of your child.
And when that leads to a dead end, you move onto the pets.
Neither of them appeared to be the culprit.
We had just finished eating dinner and in the end, although we ate grilled chicken and veggies that night I still chalked the odor up to cooking fumes.
I figured the smell would eventually disappear on its own and it did.
The next morning the scent had all but dissipated.
I moved on with my life and started worrying about more important things like the "fake Dollar Section" at Target and the dissolving marriage between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.
Fast forward to a few nights later to me putting away fresh laundry (if by "fresh" you mean it's been sitting in the dryer for three days), and BOOM there's that dang smell again. Only this time it's more rancid and the odor is seeping down the hall into our bedroom. I frantically get down on all fours and start sniffing every inch of the carpet. "It's got to be one of those damn dogs!" (Editors note: If you're eating lunch right now I suggest you may want to put it down for the time being) I have two words for you: ANAL GLANDS. I was convinced one of them resolved their butt issue all over my house. By the way, I highly discourage anyone from Googling "How to Empty Dog's Anal Glands?" My hubby and I did many years ago and our family has been traumatized ever since.
The smell gets worse and worse as the night goes on. I can't go to sleep. The odor was getting so poignant that I was convinced I would never experience the scents of life like a normal human being again. If it was indeed the dog, we just couldn't wrap our brain around why the smell kept coming and going? Then around midnight it hit me! My worst nightmare was coming true.
"Oh em gee! There's a dead animal behind our walls!"
AND IT WAS A DEER!
Just kidding. Don't worry, it wasn't Bambi.
This was just the only picture of an animal I have on my camera's memory card right now.
Isn't he cute?
I digress. Where was I? Oh yes, dead animals.
At this point I start doing what any normal person would do in the 21st century, I start Googling.
And much to my dismay my "fishy smell in house" search turns up something perhaps scarier than a dead animal wasting away between my walls.
It could be my air conditioning unit in need of a cleaning service with mold growing in there.
It's most likely something electrical!
Think melted electrical outlets, sizzling overheated circuits, or faulty wiring.....or it could also be something as simple as using the wrong wattage light bulb in a lamp.
What ever the case, it could be a fire waiting to happen!
After stumbling upon this information, the hubby and I immediately got up out of bed and started conducting an investigation. Here's a brief article on a few things you may want to look for when trying to get to the root of your stinky issues or better yet consult your local electrician!
So you want to know what was the cause of our fishy problem?
It was the boob light! I've been publicly critical of the boob light a time or two in the past BUT now, NOW that it was trying to kill us I definitely can't justify their existence (take note EVERY home builder in the good ol' U S of A).
After sniffing every outlet and light fixture in the hallway, we narrowed the smell down to two boob lights where the odor seem to be more poignant.
The hubby took them down and from first glance everything with the wiring seem to look a-okay.
But upon further investigation, we discovered singed insulation inside one of the light fixtures.
And we also noticed the shields on the sockets looked yellow and burned too.
They were in such bad condition that they literally crumbled when we removed them.
We believe it's just a faulty light fixture and not a wiring issue. I had read that the chemicals used to keep plastic and electronic shielding heat resistant can give off a fish smell when over heated. This revelation of the killer boob light also made perfect sense when I realized that the smell tended to come out at night, when we were actually using the hallway lights.
It's been over a week since we removed the Killer Boob Light and thankfully, not once has the yucky fish odor returned. Hopefully, this information can help someone else if they ever experience the same issues!
This was definitely one of those "Who would have thunk it?" moments for me.
I never, never would have suspected an electrical problem.
I shudder to think what could have happened had we kept blaming our stinky problems on anal glands and dead deers.........................
Early detection, like anything, is key.
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