Home Improvements

Right around New Years Day, I replaced the old oak entertainment center that my wife and I have owned since we were married. It was about 7 or 8 feet wide, and about 7 feet tall. It had enough room for a 27" television, shelves for our audio/video equipment, and limited storage for the kids' books and/or toys.

In our family room, we have a recessed area for an entertainment center. Unfortunately, it was much, much bigger than the oak unit and so things didn't quite look so great. Add 9 years of abuse by the kids, and we decided it was time to finally bite the bullet and upgrade.

After doing some research on custom built wood entertainment centers, I quickly realized that the custom option was way the hell to much money, unless I used crazy glue and tongue depressors as the main construction elements. My second choice was to head down to Ikea and see what they had to offer.

We found a nice set which could be customized to our nook, and almost completely fill the space. It would have more storage space than the current unit, and I would make room for a nice, big screen TV as well. We hunted for the necessary pieces, made a trip up to the OC (as that was the only location which had all of the pieces we needed in stock), and came back home. Over the course of the day, we put the whole she-bang together.

Fast forward 10 months to the present - our old TV upstairs is on the fritz, and we decide to make the move. Last Saturday we went out and picked up a 46" LCD TV, and it is very nice. Here is the end result, sans HD-DVR which arrived today from the good people at Cox Communications.


My wife and I figure that this will be our birthday, anniversary, and Christmas presents - for the next 8-10 years or so...