This week the big remodeling project begins. Or at least it's the biggest room, the King's Room (aka Master Bedroom) though I'm not doing much more than floor and paint (and new window, but that might be later).
Last week Tom worked Tuesday and Wednesday on installing the new door. By the end of Wednesday he had the door jamb attached to wall but not finely adjusted. On Thursday he got the door perfectly leveled (and it was perfect) and primed. He was going to come over Friday to paint the finish coat on the door after his wife got an MRI in the morning. But before the mid afternoon when he was beginning his Labor Day trip to the coast. I figured that might mean he wouldn't actually make it, and indeed he didn't. So he's painting the finish coat on the door right now as I am writing this.
Last week I ordered the new flooring with an email sent to my salesman at Atlas Floors which I sent at 3 am on Wednesday morning. That day he confirmed he could have the flooring by Saturday and I made the payment by phone on Wednesday afternoon. I picked up the flooring on Saturday morning.
On Friday I went with my friend to Anna's Linens and picked out the Pink (Shelby) curtains in 63" length. We then went to Lowes and got a white wood curtain rod. (She didn't like any of the rods with fancy do dads at Annas.) But then by Saturday I had decided that I wanted the full 84" length after reading online that full length draperies are the norm (and the style is to touch or crumple on the floor, but I am NOT doing that). So I picked up the 84" Shelby curtains on Saturday just after picking up the flooring. Then, right after that I shipped my old defective smartphone at the main post office. They couldn't add delivery confirmation to the pre-paid mailer, but just as good they gave me a receipt. But by Sunday I had decided that the Shelby pink had too much blue in it, I needed a lighter pink and from the website it appeared that the Carly pink was a tad lighter and would be just perfect. So I made my third trip to Anna's Linens in as many days. But in the store, the coloring was reversed, it was the Carly pink that was even darker than the Shelby pink. So I stuck with what I had previously gotten, the Shelby pink curtains in 84" length.
And on top of all that (and I'm leaving out my cellphone travails, covered in my AudioInvestigator blog) I called Bjorns about TV's on Friday afternoon. They did not have a Samsung TV any better than the 4003 in 32 inches. I wanted 5500 series. But then it occurred to me that even 32" TV would not quite fit. I thought about it and decided to try for something slightly smaller than 32", but also with 1080p (which I'm very surprised isn't the minimum resolution now). I took a look at Best Buy, but they had only a couple of TV's smaller than 32" with 1080p, Samsung and Toshiba. The Toshibs was slightly larger, at 23" as compared with the Samsung at 22", and I thought it looked slightly better too. A salesman showed me the wall bracket for it. I then thought about buying TV right then for about 30 minutes by myself. I took another look at the bracket, and it said it was for 26" minimum TV. So then I went to Sears. Sears had the identical 23" 1080p Toshiba TV, but they had it right next to several other similar TV's, including the 22" Samsung. (At Best Buy, the Samsung and Toshiba had been about 10 feet apart, with the Samsung in a special "Kitchen" display.) Seeing the two TV's side by side it was clear the Toshiba looked better. They also had a slightly more expensive bracket but it clearly stated it was good for 22" to 37". The salesman told me I would not be able to find 1080p in any size from 23" until 32". I believed that from what I had seen at Best Buy. None of the intermediate sizes had 1080p. So I bought the 23" Toshiba and wall mounting bracket from Sears. BTW, one of the issues with Samsung TV's is just like Samsung cell phones. They are too complicated. I appreciate that Samsung's have full color adjustment as good as you might need to use service menu to achieve on other brands. But then they lard that up with a whole families of bogus presets, Sports, extreme brightness, etc. So to really get a Samsung TV looking decent, you have to spend hours online getting adjustment recommendations and then hours of adjustment. I had only done some of this on my very own bedroom Samsung TV, and did not want to bother with the TV in the Queen's room. Just give me a good picture out of the box. And that's what the Toshiba appears to do.
On Sunday after the third trip to Anna's Linens, I went to Home Depot and then Lowes looking at door thresholds (floor saddles, actually) and baseboard mouldings. I picked out a wood saddle for the Queen's Room door. I had decided not to use the metal acoustical threshold which would require cutting and gluing the otherwise flooring to the cement. I never liked the metal threshold very much, but then seeing as to how it would mess up my floor permanently, I was positively against it.
Home Depot didn't have much in the way of fancy real wood baseboard moulding. I found one that was simply a larger version of the gently rounding mouldings my house already has (except for the Queen's room, which got a nice Colonial style moulding this spring, which has just been painted pink). I bought a small piece of what looked like Home Depot's best offering. Then, after dinner at Shoney's, I looked at the much fancier hardwood mouldings at Lowes. They had two oversized Colonial styles, which would do, and a Victorian style. I wasn't sure I really liked the Victorian style better, but I did like the weight and the duller sound it made when thunked. I decided not to make this decision until talking it over with Tom. I plan to paint the moulding in the King's bedroom high gloss black.
Tom showed up about 9:30 on Tuesday morning. He agreed to do the curtain mounts, the TV mount, and new moulding, for a price he quoted which sounded good. He agreed to use the new wood saddle, which will be coated with polyurethane first. Then he started painting the door.
All over the 3 day weekend I was moving stuff out of the master bedroom. When my friend came over to help on Sunday I had only intended her to help moving the TV. But we decided to move out bed and dresser as well. The bed and my Samsung TV were moved temporarily to the Queen's room. Later that day, after the long shopping trip partly summarized above, I moved 4 large boxes of records, first by moving the records, then the boxes, to the living room. On Monday, I spent nearly 4 hours untangling and coiling up wires from my extensive A/V system. I then moved the equipment rack and a credenza filled with records into the Queen's Room.
But also with my friend's help on Sunday, I moved the old Queen's mattress (which my mother used!) and day bed frame to the front. I put the day bed frame on the curb with a sign and it was picked up in 15 minutes. I asked the guy if he wanted the mattress too (which we had put into the car) but it turned out he wanted the bed frame just for the scrap metal. After he left I took the mattress out of the car and leaned it against the car with a "Free" sign. In 90 minutes, nobody had taken it. I took the mattress to Goodwill but it turns out they don't take mattresses. So then I put the mattress on the sidewalk with a free sign, using my city-provided trash can to hold it up sideways. It sat there all night but was gone by the time I got up at 9:30 on Monday morning.
But it turned out I didn't need that much extra storage space in Lyndhurst to store the King's room stuff. Most of it just got moved to living room or Queen's room. I did store two wall hanging pictures in Lyndhurst, along with the bedside table, and the very large box of cables (which didn't even include about half of the cables I rolled up, the rest being returned to common cable boxes in the computer room, and stashed ad-hoc in the living room.)
Last week Tom worked Tuesday and Wednesday on installing the new door. By the end of Wednesday he had the door jamb attached to wall but not finely adjusted. On Thursday he got the door perfectly leveled (and it was perfect) and primed. He was going to come over Friday to paint the finish coat on the door after his wife got an MRI in the morning. But before the mid afternoon when he was beginning his Labor Day trip to the coast. I figured that might mean he wouldn't actually make it, and indeed he didn't. So he's painting the finish coat on the door right now as I am writing this.
Last week I ordered the new flooring with an email sent to my salesman at Atlas Floors which I sent at 3 am on Wednesday morning. That day he confirmed he could have the flooring by Saturday and I made the payment by phone on Wednesday afternoon. I picked up the flooring on Saturday morning.
On Friday I went with my friend to Anna's Linens and picked out the Pink (Shelby) curtains in 63" length. We then went to Lowes and got a white wood curtain rod. (She didn't like any of the rods with fancy do dads at Annas.) But then by Saturday I had decided that I wanted the full 84" length after reading online that full length draperies are the norm (and the style is to touch or crumple on the floor, but I am NOT doing that). So I picked up the 84" Shelby curtains on Saturday just after picking up the flooring. Then, right after that I shipped my old defective smartphone at the main post office. They couldn't add delivery confirmation to the pre-paid mailer, but just as good they gave me a receipt. But by Sunday I had decided that the Shelby pink had too much blue in it, I needed a lighter pink and from the website it appeared that the Carly pink was a tad lighter and would be just perfect. So I made my third trip to Anna's Linens in as many days. But in the store, the coloring was reversed, it was the Carly pink that was even darker than the Shelby pink. So I stuck with what I had previously gotten, the Shelby pink curtains in 84" length.
And on top of all that (and I'm leaving out my cellphone travails, covered in my AudioInvestigator blog) I called Bjorns about TV's on Friday afternoon. They did not have a Samsung TV any better than the 4003 in 32 inches. I wanted 5500 series. But then it occurred to me that even 32" TV would not quite fit. I thought about it and decided to try for something slightly smaller than 32", but also with 1080p (which I'm very surprised isn't the minimum resolution now). I took a look at Best Buy, but they had only a couple of TV's smaller than 32" with 1080p, Samsung and Toshiba. The Toshibs was slightly larger, at 23" as compared with the Samsung at 22", and I thought it looked slightly better too. A salesman showed me the wall bracket for it. I then thought about buying TV right then for about 30 minutes by myself. I took another look at the bracket, and it said it was for 26" minimum TV. So then I went to Sears. Sears had the identical 23" 1080p Toshiba TV, but they had it right next to several other similar TV's, including the 22" Samsung. (At Best Buy, the Samsung and Toshiba had been about 10 feet apart, with the Samsung in a special "Kitchen" display.) Seeing the two TV's side by side it was clear the Toshiba looked better. They also had a slightly more expensive bracket but it clearly stated it was good for 22" to 37". The salesman told me I would not be able to find 1080p in any size from 23" until 32". I believed that from what I had seen at Best Buy. None of the intermediate sizes had 1080p. So I bought the 23" Toshiba and wall mounting bracket from Sears. BTW, one of the issues with Samsung TV's is just like Samsung cell phones. They are too complicated. I appreciate that Samsung's have full color adjustment as good as you might need to use service menu to achieve on other brands. But then they lard that up with a whole families of bogus presets, Sports, extreme brightness, etc. So to really get a Samsung TV looking decent, you have to spend hours online getting adjustment recommendations and then hours of adjustment. I had only done some of this on my very own bedroom Samsung TV, and did not want to bother with the TV in the Queen's room. Just give me a good picture out of the box. And that's what the Toshiba appears to do.
On Sunday after the third trip to Anna's Linens, I went to Home Depot and then Lowes looking at door thresholds (floor saddles, actually) and baseboard mouldings. I picked out a wood saddle for the Queen's Room door. I had decided not to use the metal acoustical threshold which would require cutting and gluing the otherwise flooring to the cement. I never liked the metal threshold very much, but then seeing as to how it would mess up my floor permanently, I was positively against it.
Home Depot didn't have much in the way of fancy real wood baseboard moulding. I found one that was simply a larger version of the gently rounding mouldings my house already has (except for the Queen's room, which got a nice Colonial style moulding this spring, which has just been painted pink). I bought a small piece of what looked like Home Depot's best offering. Then, after dinner at Shoney's, I looked at the much fancier hardwood mouldings at Lowes. They had two oversized Colonial styles, which would do, and a Victorian style. I wasn't sure I really liked the Victorian style better, but I did like the weight and the duller sound it made when thunked. I decided not to make this decision until talking it over with Tom. I plan to paint the moulding in the King's bedroom high gloss black.
Tom showed up about 9:30 on Tuesday morning. He agreed to do the curtain mounts, the TV mount, and new moulding, for a price he quoted which sounded good. He agreed to use the new wood saddle, which will be coated with polyurethane first. Then he started painting the door.
All over the 3 day weekend I was moving stuff out of the master bedroom. When my friend came over to help on Sunday I had only intended her to help moving the TV. But we decided to move out bed and dresser as well. The bed and my Samsung TV were moved temporarily to the Queen's room. Later that day, after the long shopping trip partly summarized above, I moved 4 large boxes of records, first by moving the records, then the boxes, to the living room. On Monday, I spent nearly 4 hours untangling and coiling up wires from my extensive A/V system. I then moved the equipment rack and a credenza filled with records into the Queen's Room.
But also with my friend's help on Sunday, I moved the old Queen's mattress (which my mother used!) and day bed frame to the front. I put the day bed frame on the curb with a sign and it was picked up in 15 minutes. I asked the guy if he wanted the mattress too (which we had put into the car) but it turned out he wanted the bed frame just for the scrap metal. After he left I took the mattress out of the car and leaned it against the car with a "Free" sign. In 90 minutes, nobody had taken it. I took the mattress to Goodwill but it turns out they don't take mattresses. So then I put the mattress on the sidewalk with a free sign, using my city-provided trash can to hold it up sideways. It sat there all night but was gone by the time I got up at 9:30 on Monday morning.
But it turned out I didn't need that much extra storage space in Lyndhurst to store the King's room stuff. Most of it just got moved to living room or Queen's room. I did store two wall hanging pictures in Lyndhurst, along with the bedside table, and the very large box of cables (which didn't even include about half of the cables I rolled up, the rest being returned to common cable boxes in the computer room, and stashed ad-hoc in the living room.)
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