IT's the Week of TV...

Been playing musical chairs with the furniture.

I am not sure how long our old TV stand and the TV we are replacing will sit in the middle of the house before dh can get them up to the cabin. The thing is so heavy we will need some help.

The old entertainment center is gone. *sniff sniff* Maybe one of the first pieces of furniture we bought together. We offered it free on Craigslist because it is just a cheapie thing (though it looks NICE), it had gotten scratched up from the heavy TV (any time we had to move it) AND most importantly, it needed to be transported in once piece, in a TRUCK. Which narrowed the pool of buyers considerably.

But in this economy, anyone will take anything free, it seems. If we asked $5, not sure any one would take it. That's how Craigslist has been lately - a sign of the times. But at free, someone hauled it off within hours of posting. (& a lot of calls about people asking if we could fit it in a minivan. Um, no!) I am so glad it went to a new home and someone hauled it off so quickly. The only other option we could see was to demolish and trash it. Which would have been hard to do!

I was unsure because it was so hard to give away my water bed frame, last time. It was a gorgeous piece of furniture, real wood and everything, but large. So, we figured in this day and age, who would want a giant entertainment center?

What do we know?

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Snowballing purchases:

I still want to get new black speakers to round out the new look. I talked to my dad and think I could get something for $150-ish. IF so, might just buy this weekend. Something else that appears way more costly than it is. Dh is convinced the old (ugly) speakers must have cost a fortune. I keep telling him they can't be that expensive since I bought them as a teen with babysitting money. Anyway, my dad told me we may have spent $200 on those, and that similar quality could be had for $100 these days. Sounds good to me. He can help me find something that sounds like a million bucks, for cheap.

My dh is a video guy, but not much of a sound guy. Now, my dad is a SOUND guy.

The old speakers will go upstairs if we replace them. May need a new tuner then. I wonder what we did with the last one we replaced? Did we recycle it??? The list keeps snowballing, yeesh...

I also haven't decided if my bedroom bookshelf will do, or if I Want to buy something new for the downstairs (lost a lot of storage with the old entertainemnt center). Will move the bookshelf down tonight and give it a whirl. I should get a nice bonus in about 6 weeks, otherwise, and I may just buy something new. But crossing my fingers that I like this solution. It's much cheaper!

It will be good - force me to do my last "declutter." The bookshelf has some knick knacks I have been meaning to sell forever. When I am "done," it will be time to nag dh about his rooms. He has 2 rooms in the house - I kid you not. I get a nook (for my office). I really wish he would go through the stuff in his upstairs bedroom. We could probably share that office if he went through his crap.

I mean, the kids' rooms are spartan. We went through the garage and the walk in closet in recent years. The only clutter we really have left is dh's "storage room." Because it is more "Storage" than "office." It's nothing in the realm of HOarders or "Clean House," but way too much crap for my taste, all the same. IT's like, "Get rid of it already!" The room is just filled with stuff we never use and boxes that were never unpacked.

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Anyway, where was I? My other wish list items are new carpet in the family room, and a new sectional couch. These will wait a year or 2, 3, 4, probably. But, getting there. I think it is possible that we could replace the couch next year. Oh, that would be too awesome! OF course, then might as well do the carpet. Can't have an all "new" room with our THRASHED carpet. The rest of the carpet throughout the house is immaculate (thank goodness), but the 8-yea-old family room carpet has been subected to too much spit up and leaky juice cups. It's just a disaster that no cleaning will fix. But, no rush the same, with small kids still roaming the house. Though I do feel if we institute a no-drink/no-food rule, a new carpet would be okay.

Anyway, with work so crazy, I generally do not partake in much spring cleaning. But all week it has been "clear out the old entertainment center and re-arrange everything for the new TV."

We are going through all the kids' toys as we transform the downstairs from "kid playroom" to "grown up room" again. Moving all their toys upstairs in an effort to get them to play more there and not be too rambuctious around the TV. I am sure we will leave some toys downstairs. We do mostly spend time together, but I also don't mind them being a little more independent, all the same. May take us a while to find a balance. Any ranbuctious toys are definitely going upstaris! (Not like they need anything to be rambuctious though).

With some of the toys, and all my knick knacks, I see a lot of Craigslisiting in our future. There are also some toys in LM's room that he has outgrown. I need to get those out of the house, too. I suppose we are officially spring cleaning. IT will be kind of nice to not have to do any of this when work slows down, I do admit. Then I can just relax and enjoy all the newness!

& the toys? Those ALWAYS sell for good money. People go crazy when it comes to toys. No matter what the economy.

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ETA: Dh bought some whole carrots and shredded them with our processor last night. (As opposed to buying shredded carrots for a recipe). It had never occured to me we could save money with the thing. Woohoo! May just buy whole carrots and slice them for the kids, too. No more baby carrots!