"Before" pictures...
Living room. Carpet may have been original with the condo, about 40 years old.
Living room and primary bedroom.
Guest bedroom. Apparently previous owner painted around furniture which was against the wall. Partial view of shades which were the existing window treatment in the bedrooms.
Bathroom. First picture shows the window treatments in the primary bedroom.
As you can see from one of the bedroom pictures, I put some underfloor wiring in place. There is a CAT5 cable going from near the telephone to the entertainment center, another CAT5 cable going from near the telephone to the guest bedroom and a CAT5 cable from one side of the kitchen doorway to the other side. This is so we can place the phone on the other side of the doorway without having to worry about tripping over the cord. There is also a CAT5 cable and a coax cable from the entertainment center to the spare bedroom. There is also speakerwires from the entertainment center to the back side of the living room. And finally, I put a pair of coax cables between the entertainment center and the primary bedroom. I am interested in seeing how to put the coax cable to work. In order to put wiring under the floor, I had to get "flat" cables. I wonder if the flat coax cable I got was really a coax cable. Anyway, we'll find out once I get a chance to try to hook it up.
Everything seemed to take longer than I thought it would. As an example, there was a wire lath behind the dry wall at some places, and therefore, it was difficult to drill through. Also, often it seemed there was concrete behind the wire lath. I hope nothing I put up will be falling down!
As another example, changing a door knob should be simple, right? Well, the old door knob I was replacing on the back door was the type where the screws to remove the door knob are not visible, and one must stick an object through a slot in order to be able to release the inside door knob. However, it seemed it was rusty, so I could not remove the door knob, so I tried to rip it off with the limited tools I had on hand. Eventually, I got to a point where I could find where the release should allow the door knob to be removed and I was able to apply enough lubricant to get it to release the door knob. Then when installing the door knob, I thought it might be nice to have a lever door knob. However, the stores seemed to be out of the left-handed ones, but when I looked at the picture, it seemed that a right-handed one should work. After I started to install the door knob, even though by the picture, a right-handed door knob should work, the picture (or drawing I should say) on the box was assuming that the door is opening to the inside, not outside. In the case of my mom's door, it opens to the outside. Therefore, to install the door knob so that the keyed door knob is on the outside, that meant I would have to install the door knob upside down. So I had to go back to the store and get one which was independent of which side the door knob should go. Then, when I get the door knob installed, I find that it does not latch properly. The hole in the frame does not seem to be in the right spot but since it was an aluminum frame, I had to find something which I could use to cut through it. I tried a combination of a jab saw and jig saw. Obviously a recipricating saw would have been best but did not one to buy one just for this purpose... I was eventually able to make the hole big enough so the door would close properly.
I used http://www.tadalist.com for keeping track of things to do in Florida. Not that the following is accurate, but the following is based on the To Do list which I created. It had to be modified many times to adjust to our schedule based on problems... I mean challenges I encountered along the way.
- Thursday: Remove carpet
- Thursday: Prime living room/dining room
- Thursday: Buy hammer
- Thursday: Buy circular saw
- Thursday: Buy floor padding
- Thursday: Buy more electrical tape
- Friday: Buy paint
- Friday: Paint
- Friday: Lay low voltage wiring on floor
- Friday: Buy fluorescent bulbs
- Friday: Buy more paint supplies - roller, brush, hand container
- Friday: Measure towel holder length (26.5")
- Sunday: Remove towel holder in bathroom (26.5")
- Sunday: Move furniture from bedroom into living room
- Sunday: Remove carpet from bedrooms
- Sunday: Cut underneath doorjam with jab saw
- Sunday: Select paint for bathroom
- Sunday: Buy paint for bedroom
- Sunday: Buy wall plates (5 outlet, 1 switch, 1 double switch)
- Monday: Remove carpet from second bedroom
- Monday: Prime second bedroom
- Monday: Paint prime coat in second bedroom
- Monday: Buy paint for second bedroom
- Monday: Buy towel holder, toilet paper holder
- Monday: Buy additional paint tray
- Monday: Verify threshold matches laminate
- Tuesday: Paint behind sofa
- Tuesday: Paint bedroom
- Tuesday: Paint second bedroom
- Tuesday: Move desk and entertainment center into correct position
- Tuesday: Move clothes back into mom's room
- Tuesday: Measure for curtain rods
- Wednesday: Prime bathroom
- Wednesday: Touch up white paint in bedroom, guest bedroom, and closet
- Wednesday: Move furniture back into bedrooms
- Wednesday: Buy doorknob for back door
- Wednesday: Buy curtain rod for living room
- Wednesday: Buy living room curtain rod
- Wednesday: Buy gallon ziplocks for document storage
- Wednesday: Buy curtain holders
- Wednesday: Look for threshold alternative
- Wednesday: Take off knob on backdoor
- Wednesday: Install curtain holders
- Wednesday: Install blinds
- Wednesday: Set up turntable
- Thursday: Set up entertainment center
- Thursday: Old furniture gets picked up
- Thursday: Finish installing laminate floor
- Thursday: Move furniture back into living room
- Thursday: Safely cap wires in bathroom
- Thursday: Touch up dark green paint in guest bedroom and outside mom's bedroom
- Thursday: Install curtain rod in living room
- Thursday: Paint bathroom
- Thursday: Test sending ReplayTV show
- Friday: Finish laminate in closet
- Friday: Install bathroom cabinet
- Friday: Install towel holder
- Friday: Buy nail gun
- Friday: Buy shoe molding and supplies (glue? caulk?)
- Friday: Buy door knob
- Friday: Buy coax outlet
- Saturday: Finish laminate behind sofa
- Saturday: Install shoe molding behind sofa
- Saturday: Buy more shoe molding
- Saturday: Buy Leviton wall plate
- Saturday: Buy cabinet handles
- Saturday: Finish shoe molding
- Saturday: Organize closets
- Saturday: Buy wood block, last board puller, wood glue
- Saturday: Buy miter box
- Saturday: Install shoe molding
- Saturday: Install coax connections
- Saturday: Organize mom's stuff
- Saturday: Test NetMeeting on mom's ThinkPad
- Saturday: Update Windows software on mom's computer
- Saturday: Set up folding doors
- Saturday: Buy coax splitter
- Saturday: Return door knob to Lowes and cabinet handles to Home Depot
- Saturday: Adjust length of blinds
- Sunday: Wash chalkline off wall
- Install threshold for front door and sun room
- Paint shoe molding
- Install new bathroom doors
- Install toilet paper holder
- Build cabinets
- Build pantry
- Make microwave shelf
- Create new storage in bathroom
- Install dishwasher (Maytag for 33 1/2" clearance)
- Install towel hooks
- Install blinds in guest bedroom
- Check light in bathroom
- Check light in kitchen
- Install low voltage outlets
- Set up backup hard drive
- Replace mirror in bathroom
- Replace bi-fold doors
- Install curved shower curtain
- Try to eliminate extra (original) cable
- Future: Install projector for home theater
- Future: Replace back door (frame)
Update: I found that the creators of TadaList also have a more robust site at www.backpackit.com. Not only does it allow you to create checklists but it also allows one to save notes, "writeboards" (whose format is similar to wiki's), and files. There are limitations with a free account, but still, with only 5 "pages", I can create as many to do lists on each of the different pages. Therefore, I can have a page of "personal projects" and create different to do lists, such as Home Entertainment, Computers, etc. Also, the interface for updating to do lists is much better, with drag and drop capability for reordering lists.
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