u/DazzlingShroud

Hi there! I live locally in Boston with my partner and we are looking to upgrade to a apartment with more space. We have an opportunity to live in Jamaica Plain about a nine minute walk from the pond. I went by yesterday morning and went for a run to see how it compared to my normal running route, which is through a different part of the emerald necklace.

I was very disappointed in the amount of wildlife that I encountered. Normally on my runs through the Backbay Fens I see a ton of ducks, geese, at least one or two herons, some turtles, rabbits… and in the early hours sometimes raccoons scuttling back home for the day.

On my run around the pond in JP I saw two ducks. That was it. While not a dealbreaker, it made me sad to think about leaving my apartment, even though it’s tiny.

I’m curious to know if that was just a fluke or if that is typical for the area due to the amount of humans around the ponds at all hours? Maybe it’s just less popular for the animals?

Anyone have experience with third hand smoke mitigation?

My partner owns in his apartment building and loves it. We've been waiting for a larger space to open up and now it has. 2 bedrooms, about 800 sf. The only problem. The woman who owned it smoked in there for 30 years.

The good news: no HVAC or vents. The heating is steam heat, two vertical pipes and two cast iron radiators.

We plan to:

1. Take out the ceiling, floors, and all the walls, remove insulation.
2. Redo all electrical, new wires, sockets, plugs etc.
3. Throw out all appliances, cabinets, counters, built ins etc.
4. Replace window screens.
5. Have radiators sandblasted/refurbished
6. Strip paint off the heat pipes? Is this enough?

Underneath the drywall is obviously studs, and some exposed brick.
Under the floor, a sub floor. We think the ceiling is just airspace between this unit and the above unit's sub floor.

Will the subfloor and studs and brick all leech cigarette chemicals/smoke back in?
And if so, is there anything that can be done to prevent it?