If it’s a mouse it will desiccate quickly, and the smell will not last long at all. Something bigger… will take longer.
Here’s to praying for something small! The smell doesn’t seem to be getting any worse although I went to air out the room and couldn’t get either window open (joys of an old house).
Try Odoban (HD and Amazon) or Ratsorb.
Looks like I may be joining this thread soon. In September our refrigerator leaked and ruined part of our wood floors behind it in the dining room. After a bit of fighting with the insurance company we hired an outside adjuster and he found some mold. I am currently sitting here with the loudest dehumidifier and two air cleaners running because the mold guys came Wednesday and cut out a giant hunk of my kitchen wall which meant they had to take down a bunch of cabinets as well.
Now on top of having to get the floors fixed we may also be looking at a kitchen renovation. This is our first house and although we have lived here about 6.5 years we have never done anything this major - I am nervous! We had a contractor come in yesterday and should hear back from him soon. The man who owns the mold company said he would give us a few names as well. I didn’t want to use a contractor because of the extra price but don’t think we have a choice since we are such newbies to this.
If we can afford to do everything we want we would probably replace all the floors in the house (everywhere but the bedrooms) with the wood look porcelain tile. We dream of a house with all wood floors but living in Florida with 3 kids, a dog and a pool (plus a husband who goes to the beach every day and always tracks sand inside even thought he thinks he doesn’t!) it doesn’t seem to make sense. If you have any advice on the wood look tile I’ll take it!
If we can do the kitchen we won’t do a huge remodel because I don’t want to pay the prices for moving plumbing around, we will just replace what we have (90’s looking oak cabinets) with the white shaker style cabinets that Ive always wanted. We also have a bar area in the family room that we are not sure what to do with (t matches the kitchen so we need to decide now) - either replace it or gut it and do something else with that nook?
@momofsenior1 We get bad smells in our garage from time to time. I always assume it is a dead lizard somewhere and we just wait i tout - so gross while we wait though!
A good contractor is worth their weight in gold. Ours steered us to the right vendors, bought all the materials with his discount, etc… Saved us a ton of money in the end. For comparison, our cabinet guy sent us to a flooring place that would have cost 3 times the amount we actually spent with our contractor’s supplier (for even better materials!). Same with our fixtures and hardware.
I wish there was a way to link flickr photos again as I’d love to see the bar area you are describing. Are you wine drinkers? My sil/bil have a really nice wine bar with wine fridge in their living room. They store liquor in the cabinets and all their stemware above. It’s the same cabinet style as their kitchen but in a different color. If you don’t use the space or need the storage, could you just reincorporate the square footage into the room?
PS. We’ve had bad smells in the garage in our last house. Dead squirrel. It died in a flower pot though so we were easily able to remove it.
Never known a lizard to smell. They just dry up too fast.
@gouf78 I’ll pretend I didn’t read that because otherwise that would mean we had something bigger in there - yuck! :))
@momofsenior1 The bar area is in a little nook at the very back of the room so the only thing we could really do it turn it into shelves or a small closet I guess. It is super 70’s/ 80’s looking but we do use it for wine and liquor storage (as well as an area to dump junk when we are quickly cleaning up!) The bottom is the width of 3 kitchen type cabinets -two doors on the left and a wine rack to the right with a small drawer above it. Topped with the same granite counter as the kitchen (a brown and black mixture that I don’t love) and a bar sink above the cabinets. The back wall is fully mirrored (!!!) and has 3 long glass shelves above it.
We have junk in the cabinets and drawer, liquor bottles (and more junk right now…) on the counter and some of our wedding crystal and other random stuff displayed on the shelves.
If you use the bar area, I would try to keep it and modernize it. Ditch the mirrors (think of a cool accent wood or stone in its place), add a wine fridge/cooler instead of one of the cabinets, replace the cabinets with something more updated (I’d keep the sink in the design but replace the actual sink and hardware).
I think we can still do flickr links via pm. CC will bleep out the site name, but it is an easy fix.
Last time I mistakenly posted a flickr link, the post got moderated and never saw the light of day, they didn’t just bleep the name.
Really all you need is the user name though, then you can do a people search on flickr.
Pretty sure I had that exact wine bar in the house I bought in 1984.
I meant CC will bleep out the site in the PM’d link, but as far as I know, mods cannot delete PMs. Or so we are told. 
I had a “wet bar” in my built-in-1978 house. You entered through the kitchen/breakfast area and there was a cut-out window with a wood ledge opening into the living room. Since I don’t drink, I closed up the window, removed the cabinet and sink and turned it into a walk-in pantry. Best thing I ever did. Should clarify that I hired someone to do it, except the painting.
I recently put wood-look ceramic tile in my guest bathroom. I love it. Would like to put it in my kitchen, too, but that will be later.
If you go with the tile, use a dark grout and small grout space. I used 1/8" and I like the look.
Also look into “luxury vinyl” - some are stunningly wood-like. Plus, they are easier on the feet than hard tile. Also, consider some engineered flooring like Calibamboo. It is apparently pet-proof.
Any particular brands of luxury vinyl?
Shaw Flooring LVP get good reviews. Also, Calibamboo’s stuff is supposed to be great. I am seriously considering LVT or LVP for our kiddo bath remodel.
Definitely redo the bar area. With the mirrored wall it just smacks 70s or 80s and will look odd with a white kitchen. If running out of budget, at least paint all the cabinets white and put a fun tile for backsplash
We did our whole main floor of our cape house with COREtec Plus HD Delta Rustic Pine: http://www.usfloorsllc.com/flooring-products/delta-rustic-pine/
This stuff looks amazing, it creates a waterproof floor, and it’s quiet. We are really happy with it. Our builder thought it looked pretty good too.
We are going to do the basement in COREtec Plus XLE Whitney Oak: http://www.usfloorsllc.com/flooring-products/whitney-oak/
The manufacturer doesn’t let stores advertise their best prices on-line, you will have to call.
Thanks for all the suggestions! I like the luxury vinyl but so far DH isn;t going for it. It took a long time to convince him that the porcelain tile was nice so I will see what he thinks about LV when I drag him to a store.
@coralbrook Yes, I definitely need to do something with the bar area just need to decide exactly what! I am going to ask a few of my friends who are good with that kind of stuff for their ideas this weekend.
Just got the estimate from the first contractor - it looks OK but having never used a contractor before some of the stuff seems crazy. He said he thought he should change all of my light switches from he old fashioned ones to the more modern “decor” ones with the flat toggle type switch. I didn’t really care so just said OK. Switching them out is listed at $1350! 
We have one that is updated because the old switch broke - we bought the hardware at Home Depot and our friend installed it for us. I can’t imagine I would need to pay over $1000 for that! Also, I do not think he added the bar into the estimate unless it is part of the kitchen numbers. I need to email him once I get a list of questions together.
Holy JPMorgan!!! $1350 for swapping out light switches? How many are there? Replacing the switch, if the wiring is in good shape, is not rocket science, but it does take time… and electricians charge $$$ per hour, so that might not be out of this world estimate if there are a lot of switches. If we were nearby, my Mr. and I would switch them out for you in exchange for a steak dinner.