crisis averted: tv installation successful

The first two weeks we were at this house, we were tv-free.  And when we went to Wal-Mart to buy one, we discovered to our great dismay that due to COVID, almost every tv in the store had been sold.

Apparently there was an unfortunate convergence of high demand and an inability by the manufacturers to receive certain necessary tv-building components from China.

Remember the (not) great tv debate I had with my husband?  The one where he insisted on Samsungs only for the house?

Well, that one resolved on its own.

The only tv in stock at the time was a 50" TCL smart tv.  And there was only one.

That was the size we wanted for the upstairs living room, so we bought it, even though it was a brand we were unfamiliar with.  As it turns out, we really liked the tv, so on a future visit to the store, when a few more tvs were in stock, we bought a 65" TCL for the downstairs basement living area.

After another several-day debate about where to place the tvs - the natural spot in both rooms seemed to be above the fireplaces, but we had mixed feelings about covering the beautiful stonework - we finally decided it made the most sense to hang them there, and just have one focal point in each room.

But we really, really didn't want to drill a hole into the stone.

So how to mount them then?

This is where I give a lot of props to the husband, who I had no idea was so handy when I married him.

Upstairs, he drilled a hole through a ceiling beam and attached the tv to a ceiling mount he hung in the attic.  Downstairs, he drilled a hole through the drop ceiling tile and attached a ceiling mount to a beam a foot higher up.  With both tvs he ran the power cords through the mount tubes up into the ceiling, then out a different hole to plug in in another room.  Therefore, no cords are visible at all.

It took him over a week to figure out how to do this, and it was the kind of job you only get to do once, because if you messed it up with a hole in the wrong place, it would have been nearly impossible to fix (especially upstairs, where he drilled the hole in the ceiling beam) - no pressure!

The upstairs tv, with a ceiling mount passing through an overhead beam.

I hated covering up the beautiful stone, but at least we didn't put holes in it.

The "basement" tv - hung by my husband with his #1 helper, our son Tavo.  Now he's got his video game cave set up there.

The hanging tv mount wasn't long enough to connect directly to the wooden beam in the ceiling, so my husband built this wooden connection to put between the metal mount and the beam.

Look at this, no wires!  The tv cord goes up the mount pipe, through the ceiling and down through a hole in the wall of the garage (on the other side of the fireplace) where it plugs in.

Tvs hung; sigh of relief exhaled.  Finally, back to life as normal Americans.