Some more condo renovation

I did more work on my mom's condo.

• The front door was not easily opening and closing. I trimmed some along the frame and it's opening much more easily now. Not perfect, but at least much better than previously.
• I also reinforced the door some more just in case some more hurricanes come along.
• Some hi-tech equipment had failed and required some parts to be replaced:
• The printer head needed to be replaced.
• The ReplayTV stopped working. Fortunately it was only the hard drive and I replaced it.
• The external drive which was intended for archiving ReplayTV had also failed. It turned out it was the case. Fortunately I had a "spare" case I brought with me, so I didn't have to order a new one. I also ended up leaving her with a larger hard drive.
• The microwave stopped working. My mom thought it was the outlet. It was the outlet, but just turned out to be something at the fuse box.
• Unfortunately the underfloor wiring I attempted to do before we put down the laminate flooring did not work at all. I still wanted a way to add wiring to the guest room. I ended up setting up the wiring along the ceiling. Since I would be covering up the wiring with crown molding, I thought I had better put everything I would ever need to put up there. This included:
• A composite cable which contains:
• Two Cat 5E LAN cables
• Two RG6 Coax cables
• Two Fiber optic cables
• And an HDMI cable and a phone line thrown in for good measure
• I also installed a standalone web camera to be able to keep an eye on her place. It has actually helped once when something wasn't working on her computer and I needed to see the computer to tell her what to do. In a way, it was sort of like video conferencing.
• While I was there, we also got my mom a high-definition TV. I'm pretty good at spending other people's money. Fortunately, I had coincidentally gotten an e-mail coupon from an electronics retailer and saved about 10%. This was better than the discount I get through work at the same retailer. And fortunately, her cable TV provider, Comcast, is still planning on supporting an analog feed through their cable system, so that she does not need to get a digital TV box. This allows her to watch TV on one channel while the ReplayTV may be recording on another channel.
  

Cosmetically, one of the key changes was changing the clear glass shower door. The clear glass shower door was installed on my December 5 trip. Unfortunately with a clear glass door, every single drop which dries on the door shows up. A frosted door is more practical. I was able to find window film at Home Improvements Catalog and it is still able to keep its elegant look. Especially since there is no light source above the bathtub, the frosted glass still allows plenty of light through.



Another major cosmetic change is to do something to cover the AV wiring.


It definitely looks better covering up the wires. I still have some crown molding work to do (around the vent and paint to make it look seamless). This will be on my list for my next visit.