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Well, in
bit of nostalgia, I again post a project.
Today, I tackled project tv. And, to say the project itself went seemingly
well, would be an understatement. I was MVP of team mega-tv-installer today.
BUT...that is not how my day started.
7:20 am: Cutest 4 year old kid in the world pokes me on the forehead
"Daaaaad. Lets go. You said to wake you up when I got up....lets gooooo
already."
7:45 am: Coffee in hand, time to play with the girls and watch some tv. While
playing with the girls...I think, today is the day for the TV installation.
Fembot while out shopping yesterday did me a huge favor and picked up the
wall mount for my tv. Only 10,000 problems....no clue where I was going to
install it, and shit, the ONLY 2 walls I could ever install to are EXTERIOR
walls WITH fire traps. This could be ugly. I better head to progressive
audio...those guys will set me straight.
10:45 am: I have parked the 530i at a meter not 30 yards from progressive
audio. Walk over, and past (no lie) 3 homeless folks, and to the gated
doors...I see they are only open on saturday "by appointment only".
Fine, with that, I head up 315 north just shy of 3 digits speed wise (I have
snow tires on now so keeping it slower) and exit at Bethel road. Heading west I decide to head
into Coppenhagen (super modern furniture shop) only to find they closed doors
some time ago (maybe 5, 7, 10 years...????)...thought maybe they would have
an ultramodern flatscreen mount. So, I head to the gas station. Feminator
calls, tell her of my morning and that I just might buy a tv stand...."I
dont want a tv stand unless it is ultra modern....why cant we put it on the
wall...what about a mantle...would loook really nice on the fireplace."
Me: "Fine, no furninture, I will pick up my dry cleaning and be home
soon."
1:30 pm: Home now. Seriously pissed. Not at Fem, but at my house. Ever since
we have moved here, I have HATED the location of the TV in that room. The
damn fireplace KILLS any thoughts of having a reasonable location for a tv.
So I play with the girls while also reading my "Family Handyman"
magazine. "Hey, what is this article about outlets?"
2:00 pm: Fembot is passed out horizontally upstairs getting some sleep...she
is in her first tri-mester after all...and then the cutest 2 year old in the
world just asked dad to take a nap...SCORE!!! -- Nap time.
4:00 pm: Wake up from nap, having slept on a power outlet article from family
handyman. I have my solution. To get the Electric up the wall that I need to
power my LCD, I will daisy chain off the existing outlet...only thing in my
way is one stud and one fire block in the exterior wall. Nothing beer and a
drill can't handle.
5:30 pm: Finalized my game plan. Have my measurements, have my
re-measurements, and then my re-re-remeasurements. I am now at home depot.
Time to get a 90 degree flexy bit, some electric boxes, some cover plates and
a hacksaw. Every good latencyproject needs a hacksaw!!
6:30 pm: Ready to begin. The "before shot":
Yep, sloppy,
nasty tv in front of fireplace. Sadly, the only place we could ever locate
for a tv. Time for some Wall mounting fun!
I finally decided on the wall left to the fireplace, and of course, the
hardest to ever install
a Flat screen to. See, the exterior walls NOT only have insulation, but they
also have fire blocks half way up the wall that you need to deal with, and to
make matters worse, I could not get to the inside of the wall from the
basement as the walls are over the footers...and the BLOCK...no luck there.
Wall location (sure would be swell to get a flat screen there):
Once the
wall was chosen, and I would be slurping power from the outlet on the lower
right hand side of the photo. If
you are not electrically inclined, please by all means call your local
electrician. Another option may
be to follow instructions from
familyhandyman magazine. It
was time to mount the wall mount system
Test fit is
critical (note the too-tall mounts that get hack-i-fied later):
Time to put
some holes in the walls...first is the "power outlet to be" right
under the mount, the lower hole will be 1.) the access hole for me drill
through studs to get to the other outlet, and 2.) the end access point for
the HMDI, Svideo cables that I run through the wall from the LCD to my video
distribution devices.
Mix in one
adorable kid...although, not that helpful on this particular project...
This next
photo shows the fun of snaking the electric from the source outlet on the far
right side, to the lower hole on the left, then finally snaking it to the
upper outlet for the tv's power. I would like to say that this is easy, wait,
I can....in my case it was. The fact that I could go elbow deep with my
scrawny arms through an outlet hole allowed me to almost run the wires with
my bare hands...BUT, I did have to drill through studs to get the wires
across. Some fuss there, but in the end not that bad:
Next to the
power, you need to put an access drop for your video runs, in my case both
HDMI and SVideo:
Someone was nice enough to label the cutout for me:
As you work
the video boxes (called remodeling boxes at your local hardware store), some
modification is likely necessary. This is where the hack-en-saw came in use:
Ahhh...we
are getting there, and the installation is starting to look like it WILL
work...
Here are the runs now, both SVideo and HDMI, with all electrical now
accounted for and buttoned up:
So here is
the "everything in the world you ever buy must be hacked" part. The
below photo shows just how rediculously long the LCD mounts were for my tv.
So, off to my workshop in the back of latencyland to grab a power hacksaw to
cut off the top tips. NOTE: TAKE THEM OFF THE TV for this part. Sure, common
sense, but most folks reading this blog are not so common. :)
Test fit and
time to start cleaning up the cables:
All cables
are buttoned up and mounted behind screen. Now the only thing left to do is
clean the mess that I made while mounting...that and moving all my other AV
equipment back:
Below is now
a shot of just a few of the items used in this install: Fishtape, wirehanger,
tv mount with all inclusive hardware, 18volt drill with super flexy bit, tool
belt (yep, it's leather), stud finder, ratchets, wirenuts, wire boxes, hmdi
cable, and yes, 7 coors light frost brew liner beeeeeers:
And when all
is said and done, and you finish this project up at 11:30 pm, and you have
cleaned all the mess, this is the grand poo-bah you end up with:
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