I live in a townhouse complex where two units share a chimney-flue structure, although due to separate (but side-by-side) exits at the top there may be a wall in the middle on the way up. Anyway, my neighbor started using his fireplace last winter, and each time my side got a strong stench of smoke that was so bad we had to open our windows, upstairs and down, to avoid watery eyes and choking. We left them open all night long (in the winter, ack!) for the sake of getting sleep and avoiding breathing in the crappy smoky-air. I stood outside and noticed something: the flue exits are side-by-side and at the same height. Could it be that our side drew in my neighbor's smoke because of that? In the townhouse complex beside mine, and in the other chimney exits in my own complex, the two exits are at different heights by about two feet. The only shared flue/exits at the same height belong to my neighbor and I. So, gentle board-members, could my smoke-intake problem be related to the same-height flue exits?

I spent days preparing my basement floor to apply acid stain. I cleaned, I used a power scrubber, I cleaned some more. I applied the acid stain, it seemed to take well. I then neutralized with baking soda/water and mopped 3 more times with clean water. Lastly, I used a garden sprayer to apply acrylic sealer. I'll admit, I probably went pretty heavy. When I left, the house stunk (to be expected, at least we're not living there yet), and the floor definately had that wet-look I'd like to end up with. This morning (about 16 hours later), I returned to find half the floor to have that wet-look. However, the rest of the floor looks like I didn't apply any sealer at all; but I did, just as heavy. Any ideas? I hate to be so close, yet so far away from a finished floor. The wet-look area is literally a solid section of good looking floor. The other part doesn't even have a puddle of wet-look.