Weird question~ How do you get rid of smells outside?

[Faith]

My family and I just moved across the country and are living in a rental house. It is in town and the houses are pretty close together. Our driveway is between our home and our neighbors, and everytime we go to get into our car, there is just this ODOR waffing from their house/yard/general area: that over powers me!:Puke

My DH thinks it might be urine, but I think it is much too strong and gross for that. I was hoping he would find a dead animal in the bushes on the property line, and that would be the end of it, but no such luck.

Now it is getting very nice out, and we can't open any of our bedroom windows because of the odor, and I'm afraid our car is starting to pick it up as well.

How do you get rid of an odor outside?! There has to be something we can do, right?: Like cedar chips or something?!
I just don't see how this smell can be so strong outside, when the neighbor's windows are all shut and everything.

Oh, and because this might be relevant... these neighbors were busted for meth a while back. Could that have anything to do with it? When we moved in, our garbage bin outside was packed full and also had a terrible terrible overwhelming odor...:

[tinams8]

That's horrible. All I can say is the weather might have some effect on it, like if it's really damp right now, it will hopefully get better as the weather warms up?

Without being able to control the source of the smell, it's going to be really tough. You could call the health department. Either to report the smell, or just to ask them if there is something you can do about it. That's one of the things the health dept is in charge of around here anyway.

[alexisyael]

Yes, it's the meth. Meth houses smell awful: first of all, you've got the smell of the cooking chemicals (if they are making their own meth, whiich I would assume they are, based on the smell.) Then there's the poor hygene and habits of your meth crowd: urine, feces trash etc... anywhere and everywhere!

I am sad to say that I think you just have to move. (Having a meth bust over there gives you full rights to break your lease, imo. I don't know about where you live, but where I live, if there's "harmful" activity near you, you can break a lease with full immunity.)

Otherwise, be very careful. Don't go out much, get an indoor air filter (like I said, meth is cooked chemicals -- yuck!) and be very careful around said meth heads -- they aren't the most congenial of druggies...

alexis, who knows way too much about meth from having lived in the meth capital of Southern CA for 5 years... as well as having dated a meth head for two weeks (until I found out) and having a family member who "experimented with it

[alexisyael]

BTW, the reason why it smells is that often the meth houses have a hose going to the outside to spew their fumes... they do it at night, and it's suriptious (cause it's illegal, natch). I think they hook it up through the washer/dryer hookup.

I second the idea of going to the health dept. Though if they were just busted, perhaps it is residual odor? Or, they've just gone back to production as normal...

[Bearsmama]

I agree with Alexis. I know you just moved, but this is scary business. I would not want to live next door. This is a safety thing... take care of yourself until you can get outtta there!

[stayinghome]

Meth labs STINK. You have to call the cops or something, or let your landlord know. This is definately not something you want to be living next to.

[Faith]

Oh wow!

I don't see how anyone can get away with a meth lab, if they all smell this bad!

This town has been called the meth capital of our state, and I think it is. We don't even live in bad neighborhood or anything, just average middle-of-the-road place.

I am going to dicuss it with DH tonight to see what he wants to do, but we have to do *something.*

Thanks, everybody!

[mountain mom]

I just have to jump in and add my story to yours. We moved into a rental about 6 months ago and my instincts were ringing loud and I ignored them. What happened over the course of the next two months was my dd and I (who are home alot) suffering from alot of respiratory infections after not being sick at all. There was a stinky odor coming from the basement suite that was rented the same time we rented. I attributed it to sticky basement smell. The renter in the basement was not home alot and when she was she was always coughing and seemed sick sick sick.

Then about 3 months into living there several things happened that pointed the finger to the fact that this rental was previously used as a grow opp. IUKWIM.

Needless to say we borrowed the damage deposit for the place we are in now and moved within 2 days.

IF there is a meth opp going on next door you are not safe. The kind of people that will be coming and going are not the kind to mess with. I can't imagine that your landlord was unaware of this....did he not tell you what the deal next door was?

Even after living at the other place for 3 months we were still getting knocks on the door at 3 am and mail from collection agencies for the previous tenants. Our landlord knew exactly what went on before we were there and chose not to tell us even though he knew that there was damage in the basement from the humidity.

I know you just got there, but get out asap. That is no place for a family to be. I am sending you all my positivity now for a fast and easy move.
Colleen

[alexisyael]

the last place we were, the people next door were nearly psychotic (in fact, my dh, who is a Cognitive Psychologist -- and hence only had one major class in abnormal psych -- said the wife was clinically psychotic and the husband only slightly less so.)

The landlord knew all this, and choose not to tell us. When we moved, he asked "is it because of the neighbors?" YEAH, YOU JERK!

every single morning, as my dh walked our dog, the woman would be screaming at her @6-7 year old to get out of the house to catch the bus. Screaming at the top of her lungs, I might add (we moved our bedroom to the back of the house so it wouldn't wake me). At night when I would walk the dog (between 11-12) their son would be awake and "helping" his dad fix the car in the garage.

Um, yeah. If he went to bed earlier, maybe you wouldn't need to scream at him?

They were also just plain creepy towards us. It was yucky.

The sad thing is, we never heard anything bad enough to warrent a call to whatever agency mandates that kind of thing in Ontario (we'd just moved from CA). The houses here are very well insulated. So we only ever heard the insane screaming...

oh, and she used to scream outside sometimes when there was no one else home. Looking back, I probably should have called someone, but we were really kinda scared they would do something to us if we did. I absolutely would have called if there had ever been any physical violence.

All this to say, landlords don't want to point out problems like this. They just want someone to pay their rent on time. I hate to say it, but it seems true to me. (Our new landlords are much cooler, btw).

[Faith]

Our neighbors are weird, too! (obviously!:LOL )

They actually got busted about a month after we moved in here (we've only been in this house about 2.5 months). I was out walking with the DC, 2 and 4 years, and as we were coming back up on our block, I could see police- LOTS of police, and a huge black van parked all crazy in their front yard. Our whole street was a mess. There were people standing outside watching, and I started talking to a mom with small kids. She told me it was just a meth bust, not to worry, and I could still go home even though the police were right there.

So we crossed the street, and right then, they pulled the neighbors out of the house, and arrested them on *my* front yard! (Since their front yard was full of the black police van and more cop cars, I guess they had to use mine.: ) So I had to inch around my house and almost walk in the bushes to get inside.

The saddest thing was, while they were getting hand-cuffed, they had to give their baby (ten months?) to the people across the street to care for while they were with the police.
Then the police stayed there forever, going in and out of their house looking like we were under attack or something, wearing those huge gas masks and everything.

I called DH at work, and he told he not to worry... that we were safe now, it was before that there was danger (when we had no clue). We just moved here from a VERY small town in the midwest with absolutely no crime ever, no one even locked their doors... So we are naive, I guess. We thought it would be safe now.

There are a lot of people who live there, and as far as I can tell, they are all back now except for one older man. I just realized their garage is connected to *their* neighbor's garage, so their house is joined to that neighbor's house, so they are probably in together. They have all kinds of people coming and going all the time, blaring music and driving like idiots.

It's so not fair that we are the ones who need to leave. Stupid meth heads.
Due to our Big Adventure of moving here, we have moved three times in six months, and I am 3 months pregnant and just tired and cranky. I wish I cold make them leave. The ironic part is we chose this house because it seemed like a decent neighborhood for this town.

I don't know if our landlord knew..? He just bought this place, and had workers remodle it for him, and we are his first renters ever.