Oooh Oooh that smell...

For some time there was this bad smell when I opened the basement door.  I could not track it down.   And then I realized that the landing linoleum was installed on particle board that had become wet and stinky.  So, yesterday John tackled removing the particle board.

Here is the failed particle board.  I am very anti particle board.  It's just too susceptible to moisture.  It says cheap construction to me.  John says the landing was also bad because it changed the stair height so the riser intervals were not the same.  How did it take us so long to figure this out?  And why didn't John figure it out, huh, Dave?

This is the landing now.  John cleaned the mastic off and washed it.  And today he patched it.  Then he will paint it with sharkskin floor paint.  Linoleum just inside an outside door is a bad idea anyway.  It got very slick when it was wet and even worse when it was icy.

Whatever will we do when we get too old to do stuff like this ourselves?