So I live in a condo apartment in an old building, on the second floor. Right now my house stinks like whatever my neighbors are cooking for dinner. It's so disgusting that it woke me up from a nap I was taking in the living room and it has completely killed my appetite for dinner. Apparently they consider it food, I don't know what it is.

This has been a problem the entire time I've lived here. No one ever bakes cookies, it's always something disgusting. But regardless of what it is, I do not know want my house to smell like it.

I renovated my kitchen about 5 years ago and at the time I had the contractor plug every hole that he could find in the walls and ceiling. I covered the openings around the pipes in the sink cabinet with plastic and duct tape. Somehow the stench is still finding it's way into my house. In the far corner of my living room, it smells like I'm in their kitchen next to their stove -- that's how overpowering it is. I sleep with my bedroom door closed but when my neighbors make coffee in the morning the smell of it wakes me up.

I've tried scented candles, I've sprayed a can of Febreze, I have my kitchen vent fan running on high (a charcoal filter, it does not vent to the outside). Nothing helps. I'll have a sore throat tonight and tomorrow from the Febreze. The stink will probably linger through tomorrow.

I sent out an email to my neighborhood list serve looking for suggestions and someone mentioned "smoke enders" candles. Does anyone know anything about them? I looked online, found some on Amazon but the reviews were not impressive.

I also found this, and there's a customer review that says it absorbs kitchen smells (in about an hour), for what that's worth.

http://www.containerstore.com/s/clos...7-901CA1C4BBE8

I don't know what to do. I'm thinking of putting up a curtain rod to hang a heavy drape across the doorway into the kitchen, to try to trap the stench in there. I don't want to do this, because it will look stupid, but if I can at least contain the stink it might help. Of course that would also mean the kitchen would be freezing cold all winter long because blocking the air flow at the door will reduce the effectiveness of my heat pump, but at least I might be able to sit in my living room without being disgusted and pissed off.

Talking to the neighbors is not an option, by the way. Everyone in the building besides me is a renter, not an owner, and they already think I'm nuts from my efforts to get them to stop throwing trash around in the common areas. And I don't even know whose kitchen it's coming from, it might be from more than one of them.

Anyway I"m open to suggestions, if anyone has any.

Thanks