The Great TV Debacle

As I mentioned in my last post, here is the story of what has become known as “The Great TV Debacle” in my household.

It all started when Massachusetts announced their almost annual tax free weekend. I decided that an upgrade of the television in our bedroom was in order. We had a very old 19″ TV in our room that was on its last legs, so I figured we would get a new TV to replace that one while we could shop and get the one we really want as opposed to having to settle with what was available because our TV died and needed to be replaced. The plan was to take the 32″ Panasonic LCD from the front room and move it to the bedroom and then buy a 42″ Panasonic plasma. I had already scoped out the TV at BJ’s Wholesale Club, and made sure that the entertainment center in my living room could hold the weight of the larger TV. It could, so we were ready to go.

So as we generally do on tax free weekends we went to stores Saturday after dinner, allowing for the maniacs to have plenty of time to get their shopping done so we could take our time browsing. Most importantly, there would be very little time needed for my least favorite activity, waiting in line. So we get to BJ’s and Trish and I take a look at the other televisions mostly just to make sure we were getting the deal we thought we were, and just as I’m getting ready to grab the 42″ and put it on our cart Trish notices a 50″ Panasonic. Because it wasn’t that much more money, and “bigger is better” in televisions, we bought it. And then our haste in not thinking it through began to cause little bumps in the road.

It was too big for Trish to help carry it up the stairs, so I had to call my brother to help. Luckily he was sober available to help me carry it, and he agreed to meet me at our house. Getting it to my house turned into a small chore because while the 42″ would easily fit into the back of our Jeep the 50″ didn’t exactly slide right in. After a few minutes and some mild curse words, Trish and I were able to just fit it into the back. We then arrive at my house and I call my brother, who shows up a few minutes later with my nephew in tow. It takes just seconds for us to get it into my living room where another problem rears its ugly head: my entertainment center won’t hold the bigger TV. So we drag the TV into my media room, where it will stay for a short while because we won’t be able to get to a store on Sunday to buy a new entertainment center.

Because Trish and I never do anything small, our master plan becomes one that requires a lot of work. We decide to take the fairly old entertainment center out of our bedroom and move it into our front storage room, take the newer (and much heavier) entertainment center from our living room into the bedroom and set up the 32″ TV in there, and then build the new entertainment center and set up the 50″ TV. Luckily my brother said he wanted the older 19″ to use in a spare bedroom, so I didn’t need to worry about finding a permanent place for that.

On Monday we head off to Best Buy looking for a small entertainment center for the TV, and right away we see one that was perfect for what we wanted and was a great price. The sales person runs off to grab one for us from the back room, but because it was too perfect of course it wasn’t going to work out–the one they had in the back was broken. So we take note of a couple of other ones that weren’t really what we wanted, and decided to wander the mall to see if maybe we could get something better. A stop at TJ Maxx didn’t result in finding anything that looked like it would fit, so we continued down to Big Lots, where I was sure we’d strike out but since it was right in front of us it made sense to look there.

Lo and behold, they had some really nice ones at really good prices. The best part was they had the instructions on how to build it inside the pieces so I could actually decide based on how easily I could put it together. A major plus right there. They also had a furniture delivery door behind the store so I wouldn’t need to cart it all the out to the Jeep. We did take a few minutes to think it over mostly because we weren’t exactly catching many breaks in all this. But in the end we bought it and brought it home…where the hard work began.

We first had to clear off the entertainment center in the bedroom for its move, and that was a much bigger chore than I thought it would be. Luckily it was pretty light so moving it didn’t take all that much work. The hard work came in the living room, where I had to unhook all the electronics involved out there and find spots to keep that stuff while we moved that entertainment center into the bedroom. This is where a little more planning would have worked on my end. While the 32″ TV rested on top of the entertainment center, there was a very old and incredibly heavy glass flat screen TV still in it. After some work it joined a large pile of broken electronic devices in our back hallway. From that point things actually went pretty smoothly, and by late afternoon I had everything put back together and working great. The best part of the story is while setting up our expensive TV and entertainment center we got to use Trish’s big tax free purchase to help…an $11 Mini Maglite.

But it’s a really, really nice Maglight.