mis3hijos i can definitely relate to the cooking learning experience after many years of the maytag or whatever make little 4 burner i had that would barely boil water. they say that when you use the convection you don't need to cook it as long but old habits are hard to break. if you ck out the thread calling all american range owners you can see some other's stories.also if you turn the knob i believe counter clock wise from max u may get a lower flame i know it work's on my 48". so you don't like the french door refrigerators? i have a side by side now and can't wait to get the FD. i was wondering what you didn't like about it(besides the color) since i have never had one. i'm pretty much set on the samsung FD. john Here is a link that might be useful: calling all american range owners

Since I last posted, I've narrowed a few things down. One of the rooms that was affected (there were 2 rooms total), has been fixed. The french drain I installed around the perimeter of the front of the house, where water was creeping under the foundation, seems to have fixed the issue in the larger room. There is now no more musty smell in there. However, the other room, which is a "closet" that backs up directly to a bathroom, still has the odor, which has actually gotten worse. The smell is definitely partially sweet, and partially musty. I've cut the drywall all the way around the room to see if there is any signs of water damage, dead animals, etc inside of the walls. Interestingly enough, the inside of the walls that butt up to other rooms, smell fine. The walls that have concrete on the other side, have the odor present (perimeter walls). The only two things I haven't addressed yet are the roof (I'd have to cut the ceiling open because there is no attic access at this point for how low the roof pitches). The other thing would be the foundation (slab). I have fairly expensive laminate flooring and underlayment in that room, which would have to be removed, and the floor would have to be inspected for dampness. However, given the circumstances, it's been narrowed down quite a bit. The room has 4 walls (2 butt up to exterior concrete and 2 others butt up to interior rooms), a standard hollow core wood door, a West-facing window, and a drywall knockdown ceiling. There is only two piece of furniture in the room, which are bookcases. One is MDF (still wrapped in plastic to hold it together before I bolt it in), and the other is pine wood, also wrapped in thin plastic to protect it. I've just put two large shop fans, a big air purifier, an ionizer, and ozone generator all in the room with a big bucket of damprid (although humidity levels in that room are only 49% in south florida, which is fairly average). I've also sprayed half a can of lysol air spray into the room. I'll let you guys know how that works out, and hopefully we can figure it out. and ESMAN - let me know your notes as well. Thanks.

I'm back and I'm not a troll. I'm just irritated because I have the same problem as some of you have. But instead of falling into some weird delusional state about recessed lighting, I'm looking for real answers. I bought the house in 2007 and i noticed the smell, here we are in 2016 and the same smell is there, sometimes it disappears and sometimes it comes back with a vengeance. For a while I thought it was a dead rodent (thats what it smells like), but after a few years that seemed very unlikely. The smell is most pronounced when it is rainy. The wetter the day, the more it smells. It's just embarassing because we rent out our room downstairs to a woman, and i think it sucks that she has to smell it. In addition to the dead animal smell, I sometimes smell...toilet. A strong smell of urine. I was sure the smell was coming from UNDER the stairs, but when i went into the garage and cut out a piece of the wall, stuck my head in the hole along with a flashlight, there was no smell, and absolutely nothing under the stairs. The smell seems to come from the wall that separates our house from the next door neighbor's house (i live in San Francisco, our houses are all squeezed together). I asked my neighbor if he ever smells anything, he said no. So I assume it isn't the wall that joins the two houses. I've never had a professional come look at the house. I don't even know who to ask. I've had plumbers and contractractors in the house for various reasons, and when I mention it to them, they just kinda blow me off. But, maybe I should change my light-switches??? I have plastic light switches near the stairs--maybe light is reflecting off planet venus, getting magnified through my window, melting the light switches? That must be it, case closed, thank god I have the soccer moms on Houzz to help me solve this mystery!

It may have many a reason why the odor is no longer present which is great,from a dry trap in any sink drain or due to a dry drain going from the basement to the city sewer. I didn't mention the basement drain of which I was remiss to do so. These drains are often the culprit as they don't see any fresh water added to them unless there is an overflow onto the floor, a good amount at that. If anyone has a basement drain to the town sewer systems add water to them a few times a year at least so they don't go dry due to evaporation.