Both of my parents were heavy tobacco smokers going back to their teenage years.

• Regardless of reports from health officials, they exposed us to secondhand smoke every single day by smoking in the house.

When I was getting their home ready to sell after they both passed, I was shocked by how yellow the “white” paint on their walls looked. I tried to scrub the nicotine off the walls, but it was no use. In the end my only option was to paint over the nasty yellow crud. It wasn’t the most exciting job in the world while I was busy, but the transformation inside once I was complete was obvious. After the painting was complete, I wasn’t finished fixing the house after all of those years of smoke exposure. The blinds and curtains were dyed yellow as well and smelled like an ashtray as well. But some of the most tragic damage from their smoking was the nicotine residue I found in the central HVAC system and the ductwork attached to it. I ended up buying a new air conditioner and had to pay a ductwork cleaning company to get the nicotine residue out of my ventilation system. I’m sure it was no easy feat for those gentlemen, but they were able to get it done. The air conditioner no longer smelled like cigarettes while running and the house itself had almost no odor whatsoever inside after I finished the job by tearing out the old carpets and replacing them with ceramic tile. The best part is the new air conditioner and clean ductwork immediately raised the value of the house and led me to getting more for it when I finally sold it months later.

Electric fireplace