What's the best way to use Time Capsule through Extended Wireless Network?

I am operating four computers, three Apples and a PC.  All the Apples use Snow Leopard.  I have a large house where the cable company's modem and internet access is located downstairs at the far back of the house.  That is where I have a 2Tb 802.11n Time Capsule (TC) connected to the modem by ethernet cable.  My iMac is there, connected to the TC by ethernet cable.  In the middle of the house, also downstairs, I have an Airport Extreme (802.11n) operating as a wireless bridge.  Upstairs in the front of the house (very far from the TC and closer but not very close to the AE) I have a home office.  That is where my other two Apples--a MacBook Pro and a MacBook Air--are usually located.  The PC is located in a bedroom directly above the TC and wirelessly connects to it.  At all locations, I get four radio signal strength bars.  However, I am not sure that the AE is doing anything, because I get four bars regardless of whether the AE is plugged in, or not.  When it is turned on, Airport Utility on all computers shows both the TC and the AE, but I have not been able to find which Airport ID I am actually connected to. 
From my home office I do temporarily lose my internet connection from time to time each day, but the connection recovers usually within seconds.  I assume this reflects occasional interference or other loss of wireless signal in the distant home office, although I do not see the radio bars diminish to less than the four bars.
All three Apples are set up to use the same TC for backup into Time Machine.  However, I have been getting errors on the laptops operating in the home office (a long way from the TC and perhaps connecting directly over wireless or perhaps wirelessly through the AE bridge.  Some messages are to the effect of being unable to backup, and others more recently report errors.  I think that either due to connection interruptions or merely by suspending or turning off the computer while in the middle of backing up, errors in the Time Machine files were created.  I have been unable to delete more than a few of the 8Mb sparsebundle bands so that I can completely get rid of one of the sparsebundles for the MacBook Pro.  I was able to get rid of the other sparsebundle for that computer and also the sparsebundle for the MacBook Air.  I am reluctant to erase the entire TC, because it has been working for the directly connected (by ethernet cable) iMac sitting right next to the TC.
So, I am wondering what is the experience of others who are trying to use TC successfully from computers located a long distance from the TC with either a direct wireless connection or a bridged wireless connection through an AE or other bridge.
And does anyone have good ideas about how to delete the sparsebundles effectively?  I read the various questions and answers in the support community, but so far nothing that I have tried based on those messages seems to work.  It seems that when all the Time Machines are set to "Off" and the sparsebundles are expanded to show the individual bands, we ought to be able to delete them fairly expeditiously.  Sometimes, I can delete one band fairly quickly, but then the second band will hang forever.  More often, I can't even delete the first band.

Thank you, Bob.  I followed the procedure you stated.  My AE is working.  I did register its BSSID when I put my laptop next to it.  This is also the BBSID I am getting when in my home office at the far end of the house from the TC.  This means I am using the extended bridge AE when working and trying to use the automated backup feature in Time Machine.  Do you think I should turn off Time Machine on these laptops when they are in the home office, and bring them into the room with the TC occasionally to have a better connection (wireless to TC or by connecting an ethernet cable) when trying to make Time Machine backups for them?
Interestingly (in contrast to the exact match of BBSID's for my AE), when I compared the BSSID for my TC in Airport Utility to the BBSID of the TC using the option key and the fan shaped Airport icon, the BBSID's matched except for the last two digits.  In Airport Utility, they are 2F.  In the fan shaped Airport icon they are 30. 
Also, the AE signal, being centrally located on the first floor of the house, seems to be the one most in use.  When I walked my laptop away from the AE all the way back to the TC, the laptop automatically switched over to the TC only once.  Most of the time, the laptop is still connecting wirelessly with the AE.  To switch back to the TC, I have to turn Airport off, and then turn it back on again.
I don't know how efficient or inefficient the Time Machine is when connecting to the TC indirectly through an AE bridge.

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