Hello everybody,

My husband and I just bought a condo with a finished basement. The
basement smelled musty when we first moved in and we opened a mini
window in the area (8" by 16" type of window) and the musty smell went
away. It got cold recently and we closed the window, and the musty
smell came back.

I wonder if we should buy a dehumidifier for the basement. My father
will be staying there over Thanksgiving and he has asthma problems.
However, I am not sure we will need one on the winter time: we used to
live in a one story apartment and we had to run a *humidifier* over the
winter.

So, do we need a dehumidifier or should I expect the air to be dry
enough in the winter that I won't need it? Is there something else that
may be better than a dehumidifier? We're not planning to heat the place
all winter long: mostly only when we have visitors, and it will be ~45
degrees otherwise.

Pardon my vast amount of ignorance I'm just trying to learn to be a
homeowner!

Thanks,
Karen