My husband and I just bought an older home that we are fixing up. We
have been in the home less than a month and have already ran into a
problem with a strange smell coming from the ducts in the house. The
smell seems to be very strong when the heat first kicks on and smells
like fingernail polish remover to me.

We have been painting a lot over the past few days and had new carpet
installed in several rooms. Could the smell be coming from this or is
there other problems we should be concerned about.

The furnace (we believe) is the original from when the house was built
(1979). We know we are going to need to replace it. Is it just at the
end of its life? Also, this is the first we have had oil heat, so we
aren't really sure what an oily smell would be. It has an underground
tank, could something be wrong there?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. We are new to all of this and
have no idea how to fix this.