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By Jack Beresford
Senior Reporter
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When a New York woman inherited her grandmother's home, she was ready for the challenges tied to renovation, but she did not expect to be haunted by one particular smell.
Two years ago, Gia's grandmother passed away, leaving her house to Gia and her sister.
"It's a beautiful home, and we're extremely lucky to own property in 2026, but the house is 100 years old and needs major renovations," Gia told Newsweek.
Read More on Property
Ask anyone going through the process of renovating a home, and they will tell you it's a stressful undertaking. Block Renovation's 2025 How America Renovates report, based on responses from more than 1,000 homeowners, found that more than 85 percent experienced stress as a direct result of their renovation projects.
Fifty-seven percent also reported experiencing "renovation fatigue," a form of burnout caused by delays, disruptions, and the sheer number of decisions involved.
Gia was philosophical about the challenges ahead.
"We knew it needed work, but after opening up the walls, we found a lot more than expected, so there's a long journey ahead for those who want to follow," she said.
While renovating a 100-year-old property has yielded its share of weird and wonderful discoveries, much of what Gia has encountered lately has been far from pleasant.
A variety of issues involving the gas supply and electrical system meant Gia found herself spending a lot of time on the porch outside the property. That was when she first became aware of the smell.
The house had suffered a mouse infestation at some point, leaving the basement with a distinct odor.
"At first, I thought the basement smell had just seeped into my nostrils and was following me everywhere, but it started getting worse," Gia said.
"Everyone else assumed the smell was coming from the basement window. But as the temperature outside rose, the smell got stronger. It was like rotten meat soaked in spoiled milk—strangely sour and sweet. Overall, just nauseating, but it wasn't overpowering. It was an old smell."
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Gia began investigating where the odor might be coming from. Through a process of elimination, her attention turned to a crawl space beneath the deck that had not been explored for "at least 20 years."
"Decades ago, my grandfather extended the concrete deck with wood. Under the porch addition, he left room for a crawl space and filled it with years of roofing and construction materials," Gia said. "When we inherited it, the house had been infested with fleas, and a lot of neighborhood cats sought shelter in the crawl space."
During renovations, Gia learned there were actually two crawl spaces, the second of which amounted to a "concrete box with a small window entry." Crawling into the space one hot day, Gia quickly discovered the smell was emanating from the second compartment. Curious, she decided to investigate further.
"I do not like small spaces and had no intention of going into the second crawl space," Gia said. "But when I got closer, I realized that was where the smell was coming from. I saw it and hoped I was wrong. I honestly thought it was a dog at first."
What Gia saw in that moment was a blur of "eye orbits and a snout."
"That was the first thing I saw. But it wasn't a skull. It was skin—leathery, mummified skin. After getting the whole skeleton out, I realized it was a raccoon," she said.
Gia previously worked in the veterinary industry and was familiar with seeing dead animals. The grim discovery haunted her nonetheless.
"I didn't sleep that night because I was convinced there were more animals, and I was right," she said. "I got suited up the next morning, and it was over 90 degrees again. I used a gardening hoe and shovel to get out what I could."
Gia found an opossum skull, a bird, some random chicken bones and, worst of all, a mummified cat.
"The poor cat must have gotten trapped down there or come into contact with some of the chemicals. There was antifreeze, muriatic acid and some other pool cleaner," she said.
The process of dragging everything out and bagging it up was arduous and took several hours. Thankfully, Gia is happy to report that the smell is now gone. The renovations, however, are very much ongoing.
"We continue to find more issues every day. I hired a junk removal team twice already, and we're saving for round three, but I'm sure that won't be the last," she said. "I still have to clean out the garage and half of the basement."
Though the family is still working toward getting the house into a livable state, Gia is feeling positive about the future and, at the very least, can breathe a little easier now.
"Hopefully, if we do the work ourselves, we can afford to keep the house in the family," she said. "I'm fortunate that my boyfriend is a plumber and my dad is a contractor, but there's a long road ahead for us."
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