A really good friend of mine went to clean her parent's home after they died. They were both smokers and she got rid of most of their goods. However, she found that the chronic smoking actually put tar-or residue on the walls. They had to go and strip the walls wash, and paint. The carpeting had to be removed and all woodwork cleaned as well. I am saying this because I too believe you can make an odor disappear, but their may be some of this residue left. On the post where they talked about folks using different items in their house for quilting one poster mentioned using her salad spinner for the drying process, especially for things like fat quarters.