I am grateful that my first cousin rescued so many of the valuable family heirlooms a few decades ago, but I doubt she would even give them up now, even if I were to ever get a suitable house.

One piece is a valuable solid oak sideboard / buffet that some say is worth over $100,000 and before my cousin acquired it, lots of antique dealers were wanting to buy it.

The thing about my first cousin is, she has a very stinky, unsanitary house. She never even lets her dogs and cats out to relieve themselves. The stench will knock you out the door and infect your sinuses. I am not kidding. The place needs to be condemned by the health department.

I know from other furniture passed onto me, that it takes up the smell of the house it last occupied. Usually, this is not a bad thing. But the knock-out stench of my cousin’s house may have badly tainted some valuable heirlooms.

Can the stench of a filthy, condemnable house be removed from valuable oak furniture?