Project Overview
This is my small condo that i own, my house, where i live
I plan to make several changes including:
-make new goals for 2024.
-add all of the pictures i took of the floor painting into a gallery.
-taking out the carpet and painting the floor (complete)
-move all the furniture (mostly complete)
-building a large shelf that will go behind the bed (not started)
-buying and setting up an electric fireplace heater tv area with modular furniture.(mostly complete)
Progress Log
9/28: It's been 6 months, it was a long 6 months, i removed the carpet then ground the floor and completed at least the floor painting part of this project. I stopped updating this log and the whole site because my whole condo was temporarily unlivable. Since the floor was painting I also built a new pc, created a cheap but effective organizational system in the bathroom, and ordered and set up the fireplace tv stand. I've done lots of other little things too it's been 6 months since i've written anything on this site. I suppose I have to add all the pictures I took. I still have plans.
3/11: cut a small 1' x 3' square because i was feeling sick, but wanted to do something, still planning on removing it all by the end of monday or tuesday. I had an idea which is that the toughest spot in the whole room to deal with is this heavy desk i'm typing at right now. I think when i get to the sanding/cleaning/preparation stage which will be in two to three weeks, i'll also get the paint at about the same time, and i'll fully clean, paint and sand the area in this corner first, from the outlet to the window, a square, actually maybe a small rectangle to the end of the long table too. Then when that fully dries i'll put the desk and long table back. Then i'll paint the rest of the room, actually i guess i'll sand and clean everywhere else first, sand/clean this last, then paint this first. then paint everything else. no, back to original plan, do everything in this corner first. as a test for everywhere else. I don't know, but i guess this means i have to get both the paint and the sanding equipment on wednesday and thursday, but only if the carpet is actually gone by the end of tuesday.
3/10: in the early morning i removed about a 4' x 2' square and filled a trashbag with it and took it to the dumpster. this is pretty good for a work day. I'm still thinking of how to clean the floor, how to move the furniture to both clean and paint. I need to get my tools together on wednesday and thursday, also need to fix the large vaccuum's bag. i'm going to try to get all carpet removed by the end of tuesday. I think the most difficult part will be moving the desk i'm sitting at right now and doing this corner of the room. I probably have to move everything more than once, i guess the new goal instead of removing the carpet by the end of march, (since i think i will be done or close to donw with all carpet by the end of tuesday), will be to have the floor sanded, all tack strips removed, all pits and imperfections filled, everything mopped and cleaned, basically the whole floor ready to paint by the end of march.
3/9: it's the late afternoon. wanting to cut at least one square inch of the carpet, i did it, and realized that it's
on the easy side of most things i try to do. i kind of remember it being harder when i cut the carpet before, in front
of my bathroom. Anyway i worked on it for at least a half hour, maybe a whole hour. I cut out a 5' x 10' section and
took it out in small rolled sections, first i put the rolls in trash bags, then i took the trash bags to the dumpster.
I did not want to go all out because my job can be a little bit physically demanding, so since i'm about to go in for 3
8 hour days, and i don't want to get back into that tired state i was in for so long, i decided to stop, i'm going to focus on
going to bed now, even though it's only 6:45, maybe i'll be able to get to bed by 11 or something if i don't keep going. However,
I only need to do this about 2 to 3 more times. I'm pretty sure this carpet removal is going to
be completed by the end of tuesday. I'd be shocked if i don't get the carpet completely removed by the end of march. I
may be able to go to the later stages of this project sooner, but i'm still sticking with the original time table. If i'm done by the end of
monday, which i kind of plan to be in this moment, then i suppose i'll reassess and shorten the timetable. I suppose this
was a successful day, at least psychologically this project feels a lot more possible. the wooden strips on the side of the
room will be challenging. I removed a few of them. I probably will need my dremel tool and some type of floor sander, and
maybe some sort of concrete floor washing fluid unfortnately. I don't think i want to go with tsp i think i want something
weaker than that. I may also have to find some sort of concrete filler to fill at least one little pit that there is. It's
actually nicer than i thought it would be in that way, i only found one pit so far, so maybe i won't need all that much filler.
I need the dremel tool to cut some of the nails from the side planks, i've learned the correct name for them before, i'll have to
study up on them before i get serious about that part of it, right now i'm still focuing on the carpet. I am going to find out
if harbor freight has a floor sander that's cheaper to buy than it would be to
rent a floor sander from home depot, i'll compare prices. ok that's it for today. end log.
3/9: it's morning, i didn't wake up at the right time, i have to go to work from 10-2, but after that I guess i plan to
cut out at least a small square of carpet, maybe a 1 inch square, just anything this afternoon, then it will be on.
this will be my main project, and pretty much the only thing i do other than work every day until it's all gone.
Hopefully i do it though, when i get back.
3/7/2023: The march 1st goal did not work out because my room was a mess. I decided to clean it to take before pictures, and
kept trying to between 2/22 and 3/6, but really found i didn't have the energy to get much done. So I've decided to try going to sleep at night,
and attempting to do it in the morning, or if i feel bad in the morning, and it's monday-thursday, the afternoon(at least before 9:00).
I now think i've been kind of sleep deprived for a while and that some of the pain i feel should probably be sleepiness instead of pain.
I'm not going to go into how this happened, i'm just going to try to fix it now that i can.
so i cleaned my room pretty well, moved out the bed, vaccuumed everything. Now I don't really want to rip out the carpet cause it seems kind of
nice in here, but I'm still going to. I found a little sign that shows the carpet was made in west germany lol. So it's really time to get rid of it.
2/22/2023: I decided today that on March 1st i will begin to remove the carpet. I'm not going to move any furniture right away, i'm
just going to take the carpet off of the open parts of the room, which is more than half the room, then move the bed then take that out.
To prepare for March 1st, I have to get the carpet removal supplies and the vacuum. I also need to fully clean the room and take a before
picture.
I'll remove all the carpet in easy places that i can,
then i'll have only the carpet that's actually underneath furniture left, and i'll move out the furniture piece by piece. to get the carpet
under each thing. I think end of march is a reasonable goal for having all carpet removed from the room and a bare, cold, dirty concrete
floor. I guess april will be the month that i get this floor painted by the end of.
Floor painting (complete as of 9/28/2023)
There is also this video about removing carpets that i liked a little bit.
below is a materials list from the website of the person who made that first youtube video, I have also considered using killz concrete primer instead. Maybe there is a killz masonry bonding primer, or some other type of killz concrete paint that could make sense, or i could just do it her way, then repaint it with killz later if i feel i need to.
| Utility knife |
| Large Pry Bar (Wrecking Bar) |
| Hand Sander |
| Sanding Paper |
| Hammer |
| Respirator Mask |
| Safety Glasses |
| Vacuum |
| Broom / Dust Pan |
| Mop / Mop Bucket |
| Putty Knife |
| Concrete & Mortar Repair |
| Rust-Oleum Paint Stripper for Concrete |
| Behr Concrete & Masonry Bonding Primer (Clear) |
| Behr Porch & Patio Floor Paint |
| Painters Tape |
| Scraper |
| Paint Roller / Extension pole |
| Microfiber Roller Cover 5/16” Nap |
Furniture Reorganization Plan
After I paint the floor, i plan to create a whole new room setup. I'm going to build a large shelf and buy or build several new pieces of furniture.
I'm going to make a huge wall shelf and I'm considering making my own modular sofa-like chairs. There should be two new areas created by this,
a nice tv watching area that could actually have a guest (something my current room setup isn't designed for).
Click here to download pdfs of the current and planned furntiure setup.
Miscellaneous Ideas
try beyond paint, this is for cabinets, and even countertops, NOT for the floor. It seems like an easier option than most.
3d printer to be moved to corner near window and network table
guitar stand to be placed near desk, sometimes one of the modular chairs will be there near the window.
2 out of the 3 modular chairs will be near new tv area most of the time
large wall shelf will have two side shelves, that open up and probably hold books and small tools, in the middle of this wall shelf will be a tv, on top, a long shelf, and on the bottom another long shelf. the bottom shelf will probably be harder to access. maybe one of the side shelves will be half opened to a laptop, or maybe the middle shelf will have a lower part right under the small tv. It would be nice to be able to pull down a shade and shut this, not sure how possible this is
it's possible the bed will have 4 posts and be coverable with curtains that block wifi etc, or at least make it dark.
it might be possible to learn to upholster things and make the modular sofa sections myself.
i am of course going to use rugs to protect the paint, at least in areas that are likely to be walked on a lot, but i'm not sure what kind of rugs.
i wish i could remove all of the fire alarms, i don't care about fire safety, i don't think it's a real problem in such a small place, because i will see if there's a fire, and they are annoying. And if i did like fire safety as hard as a normal person, i would then make a more up-to-date, technoligicolly superior fire detector out of a raspberry pi or something. I don't need these big metal ones from a boarding school in 1945. I'm not even sure if they work.
Shopping List including furniture and other significant items
fireplace tv stand,
changed my mind, i want this fireplace tv stand instead now, it heats up to 1000 ft so way better heating, it has speakers, and it's able to hold heavier tvs up to 100lbs, so it would for sure be ok for the big old tv i have.(update, it's no longer available in white, but i'll settle for the wood color i guess, i changed the link)
rug(update, menards got some new cheap indoor/outdoor rugs and i think one of them looks ok.
new computer (will have its own computer page soon, not started yet, though i do have some builds on pc part picker and in places like that)
guitar stand
giant wall shelf
possible air purifier, maybe diy. 2nd example
possibly place a keyboard(instrument) under the white table where your new main computer will be. regular keyboard and mouse should be on top, because a pull out keyboard and mouse is actually a little bit restrictive, and you will still have that on your main desk anyway.
Garbage Disposal Replacement 1-25-2023
I replaced my garbage disposal myself.
I realized my garbage disposal was leaking. It was terrible. (include zip file of leaking video here)
I confirmed that there was no reasonable way to fix it after watching this video.(link to video about what happens to garbage disposals). This was exactly my problem. A hole was probably dissolved through it in that way.
I also confirmed that installing a new one was well within my abilities after watching this video.
I bought the cheapest garbage disposal at menards, it was $70. It was the Criterion series 300 1/3 hp 681-4010.
At the moment I don't really use the garbage disposal that much, or I don't think I do, so I think a lighter duty one is fine for me. After learning how to change them though, I can definitely research and get the best one possible in the future, maybe next year or this year, immediately after the floor painting project(which will include repairing, painting and treating the cabinet section of the kitchen.) is complete.
One thing i really like about this garbage disposal was that it is pre-wired. I don't think the wiring would have been hard for me to do at all, but i wonder why the heck all of them aren't pre-wired. TVs come pre wired, computer monitors come pre-wired, i don't think there's anything wrong with something being pre-wired, in fact I think it's kind of right, it's kind of how most things are, I did pay for it, also on the non pre wired ones, it's wired on the inside, it's not like it's not mostly pre wired, I don't see why they make you wire the plug, it's strange, well this one wasn't strange, it was pre-wired, but most of them are strange and aren't, and that's not the only strange thing about garbage disposals it turns out.
The most unusual thing about them, and maybe the most difficult thing is how they are attached to the sink. First of all, the sink cover itself is sealed with a putty called plumber's putty. The seal is held tight by screws that apply pressure to the sink cover assembly(?). The weird part is to hold up the garbage disposal itself, there's this thin wire that kind of snaps on to the bottom of the sink cover thing. The pressure of this small wire is the only thing really holding up the garbage disposal. The screws don't hold it up, they only put pressure on the putty so that the seal is tight enough that water can't leak past the side of the drain. I always thought the screws were actually holding up the unit, it turns out that isn't the case at all, they just help the seal and tighten things up a little. They don't even screw into screw holes. they just push into a flat round or sometimes triangular plate.
Another unusual thing is how garbage disposals actually chop up the food. As it shows in that first video, there's not actually blades, just these two metal things that kind of spin around randomly. Since I was about 4 and I first asked myself this question, I always believed it was layers of knives spinning around, like layers of something like this, but no, it's these two kind of square things attached to screws, loosely flopping around, it's kind of shocking. I wonder how the 4 year old me got the answer to this question so wrong. Maybe I should double check some of my basic knowledge more often, but I'm not sure how to do that without going too nuts.
An easy thing about this installation is I don't seem to have to deal with my dishwasher in the conventional way because it seems that a previous plumber made a special pipe just for my dishwasher. I'm not sure how this is possible or if it's good. It looks more advanced. I didn't have to use the small hole for the dishwasher pipe. I suppose if i ever changed the garbage disposal at my sister's house, since there is no garbage disposal there, I wouldn't need to use it there either. Again, I think I easily could use it if i had to, and i might decide to go against what the previous plumber at my house did and use it in the future, after I find out more about my dishwasher and what exactly my unconventional pipe setup means and does.
Something disgusting that has been going on for quite a while is unfortnately fruit flies and fungus gnats. I have killed them in several ways and i do have an electric bug zapper that for the past 6 months has been killing them more completely than any other method i've tried, but they are still there, and I think most of them were coming from the garbage disposal. The garbage disposal also smelled bad. I would try to put baking soda and other things like that in There but it didn't seem to help, and based on that first video, it may have been because food was stuck on that second layer. That's probably where they were laying their eggs. Now that it's in the dumpster, I hope this problem will disappear. I know it will at least improve. I hope after the floor painting project, any remnant of them will be gone. I also had to destroy the board on the bottom of the cabinet because it was rotted and broken as you can see in the pictures below, like the one in the bathroom was, that's an ongoing problem too that should be fixed by the painting project. I also have had white buildup of probably calcium on the faucet. At Ace hardware today(i bought plumber's putty there for $4), i saw a culligan under the sink water filtration system that looked pretty afordable and like something that i could also install myself, but it was $100 so I'll get it later, during the painting project, and that should filter out some of the minerals that there must be. I also saw a regular coffee maker/kuerig coffee maker combo that I'm going to get for my mom's birthday, and maybe later one for me too, it was $100. I also saw a small electric fryer that could make it possible to fry up things that an airfryer can't. Those last two things were unrelated to the garbage disposal or the sink but I wanted to try to write that down somewhere so i have a better chance of remembering it. There's lots of things at that ace hardware in middleton, like the tools you'd expect, but also kitchen appliances and stuff that I wouldn't necessarily expect.