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Let's talk about televisions. More specifically, lets talk about my new, too-huge-for-words television. This past week, inspired by a too generous Christmas check I received from my grandmother, I went out and bought a new 35" television. Ignoring the omens of a poor decision (on the way home from Best Buy I nearly plowed into the side of a red-light-running old lady), I brought my TV home on Wednesday. The TV and its box entirely filled the back of my SUV, but -- thanks to Rachel's dolly and our apartment building's suspect elevator --getting the whole thing up to the apartment didn't prove to be too difficult. Because of the increased size of the TV I also needed to invest in a larger TV stand. And that's where things got complicated.

First, I posted an inquiry on the electronic bulletin board here at work asking where I could get "cheap but not too cheap" furniture. This netted me ten recommendations but also sparked an involved controversy about American TV & Furniture (one recommendation, many people giving long, involved stories about why I should avoid it). So with my recommendations in hand I roped michael into helping me and we set off to try to find a TV stand. Eight stores and a number of hours later I was still without a stand. Most of the stores didn't have anything like what I was looking for (mainly, an inexpensive version of one of the TV Stands I found at Pottery Barn) and the few that I found were much, much too expensive. However, very late on Thursday night some creative googling saved me. I found pretty much just what I wanted online and then located a merchant here in Saint Louis that carried the unit that I wanted. That merchant? Circuit City. I had been shying away from ready-to-assemble furniture because they are often of fairly low quality and I often don't have the patience to assemble them. However, this product exceeded my expectations. It took a long time to assemble, but everything went together smoothly and the end product looks great. Really, the only fly in the ointment was the fact that the elevator in our building has been out of service since last Thursday so michael and I had to lug the 160 pound unit up two flights of stairs. (For the record, michael designed a unique lifting strategy that allowed him to place his end on the ground while I lifted the full weight of he unit up and flipped it over. In hindsight, I believe he did this to torture me.)

So that's the story of my new TV. I suggest all of you invite yourselves over to take a look at it.

PS -- I'll update with some pictures shortly.

Posted by on 10 January 2005 at 2:25 PM

I'd like to see it someday -- no flat screen? Lots lighter and no stand required, just a picture hook. I don't have one.

Posted by rkc on 11 January 2005 - 10:23 PM

Flat screens were much too expensive for my taste. This has an awesome picture (CRTs generally have better pictures than flat TVs) for much less money. Of course, my TV easily weighs two or three times what a flat TV would weigh. michael and I had more difficulty than we'd like to admit moving it from the kitchen to the living room.

Also, I put a few pictures of the TV up at flickr. Our apartment is still a mess from emptying out the old entertainment center and assembling the new TV stand, so don't hold that against us. Oh, and yes, I still have my Christmas tree up. Let's not discuss that.

Posted by david on 11 January 2005 - 11:05 PM