Suzy Carpenter

In our 5th we have an entertainment area which is comprised of a desk with a roll top, a fire place, television and stereo components.  The stereo equipment that came with the 5th is what would be commonly referred to as a "POS".  We brought our tuner, dvd player and tv receiver from home to replace it.  All of the equipment was  held in one of the little cupboards above the television.  There were a ton on unlabeled wires from the satellite, the antenna, all the surround sound speakers, etc., etc.  Our friend, Craig McAllister, was up earlier in the summer to help us sort out all this mess.  However we still had to try to find a way to get the components out of that little cupboard to make things more accessible.  The only solution we could come up with was to use the area under the desk.

We had some heavy plywood, paint, etc at home.  I sanded and painted the boards.  But we are not very good on the business end of a saw.  We couldn't cut a straight line if our life depended on it.  Craig to the rescue again.  He was kind enough to use his table saw and good eye to cut the boards into the sizes needed to make a shelving unit.  I put it together last week, finished the trim and re-painted.  Here is the final product.

 We headed up to the park on Friday night and Saturday morning we worked on getting this installed.  We drilled a hole behind the fireplace and pulled all the wires down into the back of this new unit.  Voila!!  It worked.

   Not bad.  If it hadn't worked we found one in the Ikea catalog that might have worked.  That was Plan B.  They wanted a $100 for it but we made this for the price of the trim - $12.00.  Just need one more wire to move the receiver down into the unit, a cover to conceal all the wires behind the tv and we have put another  personal touch to our new home.   We are still thinking about  swapping out the tv, removing the roll top and installing the big 42" flat screen we have at home.  Time will tell.

Saturday afternoon our friends Bob & Val Burgess arrived for an adult sleep over.  Val brought along a yummy blueberry coffee cake for desert.  We made short order of that.  It is always nice to see them.  They are a great couple and we had lots of laughs.

The weather was beautiful over the weekend.  Lots of sunshine but cooled off nicely at night for sleeping.  Hope we have lots more of these great weekends before the summer is finished.

Until next time - safe travels.