Replacing the carpeting and painting the walls and ceilings will get you 95% of the way there in my experience. We had a similar situation and the paint really helped. We also washed the kitchen cabinets (which may or may not have helped). Good luck.

Thanks for your reply and the encouragement that it can be done. I did call servicemaster and they said what you basically have to do is scrub everything (walls, ceilings, windows, closets, cabinets, light fixtures, all nooks & crannies) with a degreaser. Then seal all the walls and ceilings with the primer and then repaint. Also replace all the carpet. The servicemaster guy said that "most" of the time you can get all the smell out of the house. If you don't have all the smell out, then it's probably because you missed some nook or cranny. He said it is very labor intensive, which I can certainly believe (and if we hired servicemaster to do it it'd be several thousand dollars.) He also said that odor neutralizers and ozone generators don't help, although I may try them anyway, it certainly can't hurt (and at least get rid of the paint smell!) We planned on repainting and replacing all the carpets as well as the window coverings, light fixtures and cabinets anyway, so it sounds like we could actually do this. And I guess if worse came to worse, we'd sell it and move on.

Use the Vamoose 1808T Tobacco Odor Fabric Spray. Several Rental Car Agencies and Major Hotels are using it. It works by getting into the fabric and chemically converts the tar and nicotine into a non-volatile gaseous state. It smells strong for about an hour but after that...the odor is permanently gone. This stuff is amazing!! One company that sells it is called Hill Country Distribution in Austin Texas. You can contact them at sales@hillcountrydistribution.com or call them at (512) 784-4024.

Our investor group is involved in buying and rejuvenating foreclosure homes; most of the properties have been unoccupied for a year or more. Stale air, smoking and pet odors can get quite bad. Selling a house with odor problems takes longer and affects the resale value. Painting the interior does not remove all odors as the odors are embedded in the walls, carpets, carpet pads and duct work. A painting contractor mentioned a product called, Air-ReNu a paint additive, turns any painted wall surface, into a permanent air, purification system no electricity or filters required. We now use, Air-ReNu on every interior paint job. Has anyone else used this product?