making room for a used leather couch

08.25 apt`gear couch

8.24: apt`gear/couch/explore reuse:
. my neighbors tossed a great leather couch
so I took it home with my dolly,
but there's no space in the living room
unless I can move out the couch currently there .
. the only way to get it down the hallway,
is to cut off its absurdly tall arms
(they are as high as the back of the couch!);
but how to remove the upholstry on the couch
without ripping all the fabric up?

(I'm not really worried about the upholstry,
but I wondering how to retain the padding
and generally how to reverse assemble it )
. the only entry seems to be unstapling the bottom fabric .
[ but the way the do some of the sides
is by a type of stapling that comes as
long strips with cut-out teeth .]

8.24: proj.apt`gear/couch/exploring construction:
. I started the exploration by trying to pull the staples out of
the underside of couch;
but they were so tight I decide to just
scissor-out the fabric .
. then I scissored the back and a side off
to see how I might take the arms off .
. without the arms it could serve as a bed,
and it could likely fit in our tight hallway .
. I have one arm ready for being sawed off .
pos:
. are staples always such a big hassle?
one side of staple was always staying in;
but I hadn't tried the staple puller yet .
. I should just pull the ones that are out of line
and then slice material at that line;
... but the next couch I worked on was leather,
so I decided to try staple-pulling again;
and that couch seemed to have softer wood,
so an office staple puller could do much of it .


8.24: proj.gear/couch/reusing leather upholstry:
. trying the office staple puller:
it's a great help but the job is easier with soft wood .
. the puller would need some help
because the staple would be surrounded by the cusion of
leather and a 1/4inch backing material,
so I used a scissors tip to pull the scissors up
to just a point where the puller could reach them;
even when it didn't have both jaws into it,
it often pulled both sides of the staple out .

8.25: tech.gear/hard wood staple pulling:
. furniture is often made with a hard wood, like mahogany,
so when fabric is stapled down,
it's not easy to pull back up .
. start with an office staple puller
or a pick or fine scissors point:
that's making room for the flat blade screwdriver
which gets one end out .
. the other end is pulled  by grabbing with pliers
and then rolling pliars on its head
like a clawhammer's nail-pulling .
. sometime having pliers grabbing large knots of material
would be a starter for pulling staples
(replacing puller and sometimes also screwdriver).

8.25: proj.gear/couch/
duct-taped seat cusion gets a leather seat cover:
. there was something wrong with a seat cusion too,
so they thoroughly duct-taped that, and it was holding .

. I didn't think that would breath well though,
so my fix was to take the leather from the back of the couch,
(along with some fiber mat underneath that)
and use that as a seat cover for the couch .

8.25: proj.apt`gear/couch/remove arms:
. while trying to remove the couch arms
the gifted power saw jammed on that hard wood ?

use the tree saw to finish the job cutting mahogany .
. prep and cut the other arm next .

. finish pulling staples and removing unneeded fabric .

proj.apt`gear/couch/move through hallway succeeded:
. without arms, it barely got through the hall,
it could only take a right after going from the right,
but that's where I wanted it: in the bedroom to the right .
. to cover the hole exposing springs on its right-side seat,
I doubled-over the tough fabric that was on bottom of couch,
and laid it over the seat with the hole .

proj.apt`gear/couch/
canibalize couch`arms for foam and mahogany wood:
. the large staples are all still in place,
and if the small staples needed prying
before the pliers could reach them
then they were left in place .
. pair of nearly 2x2ft foam pieces;
pair 2ft x 4in x 0.5in planks;
pair 2ft x 1 in x1;
pair of 1ft x 4in x 0.5in planks (odd cuts).

proj.apt`office/install easychair:
. the next part of making space for the couch move
is getting the easychair out of the way;
so, it can go into the office space .
. the office floor consists of hard foam mats
covered by a blanket,
so the chair should be placed on some hard sheeting .
. last time the chair was in there,
it was resting on an acrylic sheet,
but that is used for extending a countertop right now,
so the replacement I found
was a couple of 3ftx1ft particle boards
that were saved from neighbor's trash
after some sort of mobile closet fell apart .


. my mobile clothes rack fits in the office,
so I don't have to figure a new way of
hanging the laptop in front of my face
while in the easychair .


. I also needed to sweep the large rug under the easy chair
because as that chair moves from upright and back
it is rubbing wood parts that shed splinters .

proj.apt`living room/new couch installed:
. it was on its side in the kitchen,
and I turned it around so that I'd be
pulling the dolly instead of pushing .
. when it was going over the slat
that was protecting the extension cord,
I eased one wheel at a time,
then did short cycles of reverse and forward,
until I was hugging the corner I had to get around .
. it was going to be standing on the artsy large rug,
which I didn't want,
so I had to move the rug out of the way,
this involved moving it out from under the fridge .
(not sure what I was thinking before,
but now there is small bathroom rug
between the fridge and the artsy rug)
. the fridge has wheels,
so when I went to lift an end to slide carpet under,
the back of fridge would slide away from me
instead of my end being lifted up,
so I had to rotate the fridge around,
and then its right side was facing
the side I needed the carpets under .
. now the fridge back gets more air
and the door is closer to the kitchen .

8.25: proj.gear/couch/fixing the hole properly:
. this couch was recently found by the side of the road
(part of a community recycling routine)
and it had be ravaged by a dog or something .
. one corner of a lower back's cusion
had been chewed to bits by a dog,
so they had put the bits back in
and tried to staple it shut and then duct tape it;
but the staples and tape were both loose,
and the hole was dropping bits of fluff again .
. I pulled out all the bits,
and separated out what looked like bits of paper towel;
then pulled out all the staples,
and stuffed the bits into a thick plastic bag
(the kind used for storing 10lbs of beans)
. finally, I squeezed the the bag throught the hole,
and it stays there without staples or duct tape .
(they had some very nice looking metalic purple duct tape too,
it looks pretty good with the red leather of the couch).