New cabinet, revealed fir floor, new GFI AC outlets
I did not sleep but three hours this morning.
I spent my normal sleep time re-assembling the A/V equipment in the new "entertainment credenza."
Here is the result of two days of work
--20160314MarMon0700-Zolacmanor_living_room_with_new_entertainment%20credenza_rug_and_removed_carpet--
Sunday I replaced the old 2-prong outlet with a new 3-prong GFI outlet. As our electrical system is not grounded I wanted at least GFI protection for any 3-prong outlets I add so that I don't do workarounds with those 3-prong adapters.
I waited to do that until the laundary was finished as I needed to get access to the basement to shut down the power.
Amazingly, the replacement of the outlet went without a hitch once I discovered that I no longer needed to do the wrap wire around the screw method required in the old 2-prong outlet--just push the wire in the hole and tighten the screw!
Then, pulled all the tack strips off the periphery which once had carpet. Some of those nails were really difficult to pull, but between the crow bar and my nail puller I made the floor nail free!
I brought up a rug we had stored in the basement.
It will be useful eventually in the living room, but for now will cover part of the carpet. I will have to figure out how to transition from the carpeted and padded entry area to the fir floor (which is like an inch lower without the carpet or padding). The rug will help provide a bit of that transition but the goal is to have the rug in a central position so you step from the carpeted area outside the living room onto the fir floor, then onto the rug.
So, now with the newly revealed floor, on to the main reason for the changes--the cabinet.
I was already tired and there was little daylight, but I needed to finish this. It was not going well after the first step when the whole back side of the cabinet was assembled from six or so separate pieces which fit into each other. I discovered the pieces did not stay together easily.
Marisa helped me. In the end left it slightly off thinking that when I finally brought it together with other pieces it would work. I was partly right.
Part of the problem was that the hardware used cams which did not lock very well. In one case the cam I was using shattered! Good that the maker provided extra cams.
Eventually I was able to get enough cams to lock that I was able to assemble the whole thing. Then I discovered 4 bolts which should have been used. Turns out the picture showed them being used but the text did not explain! With Marisa's help, however, we tilted the cabinet so I could tighten the newly added bolts from under the cabinet. Crisis averted, no thanks to bad directions.
So--bad design, bad cams, bad directions. However, in the end the cabinet looks nice. As long as I don't move it we should be fine. I added carpeted caster bases under the legs so we could sort of slide the unit on the fir floor without worrying about damage.
It was 11 p.m. and I had still not put the A/V stuff inside. We had already missed our Sunday television programming. I was super tired but wanted to not leave it like this.
So I methodically put in the amp and connected everything. But, whoops, the amp and the laser player did not both fit in the top section. The laser had to go there because it was too deep and would not fit in an enclosed part of the cabinet. So I disconnected everything and moved the amp to a lower section behind the glass doors.
As I was very fatigued by now I made a mistake by propping the heavy amp on the edge of the cabinet, then pulled a wire which tugged at the amp and boom...the amp fell off the cabinet. A little chunk off the cabinet fell off...the second ding (the first came during assembly).
Eventually I was able to get all the equipment added and powered. I finished the cabinet with handles for the doors. I did not screw in the back as the cabinet appeared stable enough. I might do it in the future but have found that this is often unnecessary.
I wanted to return furniture to where it came from, but the bookcase was occupied by dvds and vhs tapes from the old credenza. I had to put all of those in the new credenza first. It was like 3 a.m.
By 4 a.m. I did that. I re-positioned the cabinet, added the television and put in the shelves (dvd shelves and the bookshelves). I cleaned up as much as I could without running the vacuum cleaner.
By 4:30 a.m. I was finished...and everything powered up correctly! I sat down to 2 pieces of pizza and three glasses of juice (I was very thirsty)...and watched Murdoch Mysteries off the DVR.
At 5:30 a.m. I went to bed to sleep for three hours before waking up to go to work.
* books need to go in the bookcase.
* glassed cabinet needs to go above the bookcase and filled with DVDs.
* other dvds need to go in the dvd shelves.
Later:
* move the vhs drawers.
* remove more carpet and carpet tacks from the living room (the 2nd third).
* transition the foyer carpet to living room.
* reposition the rug.
Even later:
* remove the rest of the carpet and replace the 2nd living room outlet, reposition book shelves, add a skinny bookshelf with access to the power plug.
* install new drape rods and tie-backs for the living room.
* cut out and fix cable entry.
I spent my normal sleep time re-assembling the A/V equipment in the new "entertainment credenza."
Here is the result of two days of work
--20160314MarMon0700-Zolacmanor_living_room_with_new_entertainment%20credenza_rug_and_removed_carpet--
Sunday I replaced the old 2-prong outlet with a new 3-prong GFI outlet. As our electrical system is not grounded I wanted at least GFI protection for any 3-prong outlets I add so that I don't do workarounds with those 3-prong adapters.
I waited to do that until the laundary was finished as I needed to get access to the basement to shut down the power.
Amazingly, the replacement of the outlet went without a hitch once I discovered that I no longer needed to do the wrap wire around the screw method required in the old 2-prong outlet--just push the wire in the hole and tighten the screw!
Then, pulled all the tack strips off the periphery which once had carpet. Some of those nails were really difficult to pull, but between the crow bar and my nail puller I made the floor nail free!
I brought up a rug we had stored in the basement.
It will be useful eventually in the living room, but for now will cover part of the carpet. I will have to figure out how to transition from the carpeted and padded entry area to the fir floor (which is like an inch lower without the carpet or padding). The rug will help provide a bit of that transition but the goal is to have the rug in a central position so you step from the carpeted area outside the living room onto the fir floor, then onto the rug.
So, now with the newly revealed floor, on to the main reason for the changes--the cabinet.
I was already tired and there was little daylight, but I needed to finish this. It was not going well after the first step when the whole back side of the cabinet was assembled from six or so separate pieces which fit into each other. I discovered the pieces did not stay together easily.
Marisa helped me. In the end left it slightly off thinking that when I finally brought it together with other pieces it would work. I was partly right.
Part of the problem was that the hardware used cams which did not lock very well. In one case the cam I was using shattered! Good that the maker provided extra cams.
Eventually I was able to get enough cams to lock that I was able to assemble the whole thing. Then I discovered 4 bolts which should have been used. Turns out the picture showed them being used but the text did not explain! With Marisa's help, however, we tilted the cabinet so I could tighten the newly added bolts from under the cabinet. Crisis averted, no thanks to bad directions.
So--bad design, bad cams, bad directions. However, in the end the cabinet looks nice. As long as I don't move it we should be fine. I added carpeted caster bases under the legs so we could sort of slide the unit on the fir floor without worrying about damage.
It was 11 p.m. and I had still not put the A/V stuff inside. We had already missed our Sunday television programming. I was super tired but wanted to not leave it like this.
So I methodically put in the amp and connected everything. But, whoops, the amp and the laser player did not both fit in the top section. The laser had to go there because it was too deep and would not fit in an enclosed part of the cabinet. So I disconnected everything and moved the amp to a lower section behind the glass doors.
As I was very fatigued by now I made a mistake by propping the heavy amp on the edge of the cabinet, then pulled a wire which tugged at the amp and boom...the amp fell off the cabinet. A little chunk off the cabinet fell off...the second ding (the first came during assembly).
Eventually I was able to get all the equipment added and powered. I finished the cabinet with handles for the doors. I did not screw in the back as the cabinet appeared stable enough. I might do it in the future but have found that this is often unnecessary.
I wanted to return furniture to where it came from, but the bookcase was occupied by dvds and vhs tapes from the old credenza. I had to put all of those in the new credenza first. It was like 3 a.m.
By 4 a.m. I did that. I re-positioned the cabinet, added the television and put in the shelves (dvd shelves and the bookshelves). I cleaned up as much as I could without running the vacuum cleaner.
By 4:30 a.m. I was finished...and everything powered up correctly! I sat down to 2 pieces of pizza and three glasses of juice (I was very thirsty)...and watched Murdoch Mysteries off the DVR.
At 5:30 a.m. I went to bed to sleep for three hours before waking up to go to work.
* books need to go in the bookcase.
* glassed cabinet needs to go above the bookcase and filled with DVDs.
* other dvds need to go in the dvd shelves.
Later:
* move the vhs drawers.
* remove more carpet and carpet tacks from the living room (the 2nd third).
* transition the foyer carpet to living room.
* reposition the rug.
Even later:
* remove the rest of the carpet and replace the 2nd living room outlet, reposition book shelves, add a skinny bookshelf with access to the power plug.
* install new drape rods and tie-backs for the living room.
* cut out and fix cable entry.