Friday, March 5, 2010

Going Through Money Like Water...

And so it begins, a simple project that snowballs into an avalanche.

Photo above...This was taken during the conversion project where John and I transformed an old kitchen cabinet into an attractive coffee table. The old entertainment/media center is shown in the background.

It all began a couple of years ago with our old entertainment/media center. There was nothing wrong with it, it was attractive enough and storage was ample but originally, in our previous home, it resided in John's den. It provided him with his own private TV so that he could watch his football games or golf tournaments while I wallowed in HGTV home improvement programs and girlie craft shows such as Carol Duval. This worked splendidly in our other home as our family room contained a whole wall of built in cabinets that housed TV, stereo, video and DVD recorders and players, storage for record albums, tapes, video cassettes, toys, puzzles, brick-a-brack...you name it and it was probably in there.

Photo above...Old media center, doors all closed.

Photo below...Old media center, door open to show antiquated TV.



All of that however was built in, attached permanently and remained when we sold the house and moved. Our new home had only a blank wall in the family room and that's where John's entertainment center was placed, along with the promise that we would build another unit similar to the one we had left behind. Well in the movies the seasons would be drifting by; a montage of scenes splashing before you. First a vignette of bright sunshine and daisies,then fading into the purples, reds and golds of autumn foliage, then melting into scenes of wintry snow and icicles, and eventually focusing into a cheerful spring garden, filled with pastel flowers and butterflies; these snippets of time would flash before you heralding the passage of time. First one year and then another and now onto the third and the media center remained implanted in the family room.

Photos...Winter- frost on my oregano/Spring-Magnolia blossom/Summer- Fiesta Lantana plant

Perhaps it was our son-in-law that put the bee in John's bonnet, he mentioned how there were numerous sales going on for the big flat screen plasma TVs. In reality our daughter and son-in-law were trying to bring us into the 21st century, hoping to get us to shed our woolly mammoth hide clothing and come out of our cave and into the modern world.

John, being one attracted to electronics like most men, was curious to see what was out there. He spent weeks scouting out the discount stores and electronic stores, studied literature about plasma TV for hours, read Consumer's Reports, searched the Internet and finally settled upon THE TV!!!
I suppose he could have picked out a larger unit, though it was considerably bigger than what we had first agreed upon...yeah, can you hear the ka-ching, ka-ching? Thankfully it's nowhere near as big as it could have been.

Photo above...the new kid on the block, our HDTV sitting on its temporary home, our heavy duty folding buffet table.


We had now committed ourselves; fortunately it wasn't into an asylum, which would have been less expensive than our commitment to this massive blank eye that stared at us unblinkingly. It needed it's space, it's own abode and so we shuffled things around, cleared everything away from the family room wall and drug the heavy, folding buffet table out from under our bed. The old entertainment center was moved into John's den, along with the old TV, making room for the new flat screen HDTV unit and, ultimately, a new media center...however this part of it was still on the drawing board. TO BE CONTINUED. . .

7 comments:

  1. How funny, we are contemplating the same investment :) Here's the thing...we're most interested in filling the space in our less than 2 year old house meant for a big entertainment center. Right now we have a smallish table and a smallish TV. We want the entertainment center to be bigger, but if we do that, we need a bigger TV...a LOT bigger TV. We can't do either without doing both or it will look REALLY weird. The whole shebang is going to cost mucho moolah...so we are holding off on it for a while!

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  2. Isn't that how it always goes? My husband is wanting a new plasma tv as well...Ours is working perfectly well. It's perfect for our living room. He's still drooling over plasma screens...One of these days.

    BTW--Our old buffet table held both our computers for the longest time. Now we have separate desks and it's been packed away!

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  3. This is so true, you really can't do one without the other, can you? And then it gets really expensive.

    We went thru a similar thing a few years ago, we had used a sturdy open bookcase to hold our TV, stereo, vcr etc., for about 15 years but as the boys got older and had more gaming machines I needed something with doors on it, so I went out and found an antique wardrobe that had been retro fitted to house a TV. That dictated the size of the flat screen TV. My Hubby was only to happy to go buy a new TV.

    Of course being married to someone in the electronics world we nearly always have to have the latest and greatest. I think he has tried to convince me that it is very important he do this for his job, like keeping his industry going or something, LOL :)

    Have a great weekend, T.

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  4. Aly- I think builders purposely make houses with these large walls that are designed to encourage sales of humongous TV sets and mammoth media centers.
    I hope to get around to blogging about the actual entertainment center but right now my focus is on our financial snowball that is frantically rolling down hill, growing bigger and bigger as it rolls faster and faster. =O

    Cathryn and T - I truly think it is in the male genes. Men probably have always been drawn to the most up-to-date guy plaything. Bet 150 years ago men were eyeing the latest, fanciest horse drawn carriage, or the newest model of hand saw or ax or horse drawn plow. Wonder if cavemen had flint stone envy or dreamed of having one of those magical bear claw pendants or did they drool over the Clovis Point ? =D

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  5. You totally crack me up! Wooly mammoth hide, checking int an assylum...lol! Well at least you finally came out of your cave. Would you believe we have the EXACT same old tv as you guys? Yup, its true! Matt built our entertainment center and we've been wanting a new flat screen too but he built the center around the old tv. Um, way to plan for the future babe! He wants to take the top off and place a new plank across the bottom so it will be a snazzy low and modern type unit but we can't get the tv until he does that so I too plan to watch the montage...too bad the time doesn't actually pass as fast as they make it seem in the movies huh? lol Where did you end up / what did you end up buying?

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  6. Jenn - Ultimately we decided upon a 40" Sony Bravia purchased through Sam's Club. Has wonderful picture quality and clarity.

    Basically we're constructing the media center from an assortment of Kraftmaid cabinets. It may not be as expensive as having a furniture manufacturer design and custom make a unit but it isn't nearly as economical as John and I had hoped it would be. :(

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  7. We are still far, far behind. I would LOVE to have a proper media center like you are planning!

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