Design problems

Well, there’s been a variety of design problems lately. 

First, I recently found out that one of the classes I signed up for has been altered slightly.  When I signed up for next semester it said 9am-12.  We were just informed that because we have so much material to cover in that class, the school decided to extend the class from 9am until 3:20.

You read that right. 

Six hours and twenty minutes.

Every Saturday.

For sixteen weeks.

But I remain positive.  First of all, it will be winter.  What else is there to do?   But more importantly, the instructor said she will not enforce that we stay that whole time but she will still plan to stay until 3pm like she does now.   I’ve stayed late a couple times, and honestly, it’s needed.  I don’t just want to pass these classes, I actually want to know what I’m doing when I finish this program.  You kinda need it if you want to succeed.  I still don’t understand how all these students think they can miss class or stroll in late, and even if they manage a passing grade, think that’s good enough.  They’ll learn.

Design problem #2 is potentially a little more serious.  Just found out today that the department is in danger of being shut down.  Not immediately, but there are rumors that some programs go on and off the bubble for being cut.  This is something I just didn’t want to hear.  Wouldn’t it figure when I finally start something I really want to do with my life, this kinda crap happens?  Now I have to fight more than ever.  I’ve got it in me. 

Our instructor told us to spread the word to all the design students to make sure we have officially declared interior design as our major.  This is step one in making sure the school sees concrete numbers that there are students in the program.  I’m going to do this immediately.  We were told that if even the worst happened, they can’t just yank the program while students are in the middle of it.  As long as we declare, we should have the right to finish the program.  Man I hope it doesn’t come to this. 

I’ll cross my fingers, but in the meantime, I can discuss another design problem here at home.  When my husband and I built our house we had to make so many decisions in a short amount of time.  We felt rushed.  It was hard to decide where to put simple things like cable jacks and how to wire a room for sound when the walls weren’t even there yet.  But that’s when those kinds of decisions are made so we had to wing it.  My husband was pretty excited about the wiring for his Bose entertainment system.  When we moved in, we hung the tv.  After it was hung, it just seemed a little too high. 

See?

Ok, first ignore the little pieces of tape on the wall.  That was me doing some measuring and marking.  You can also ignore the silly strand of skeleton lights that are falling off the tv stand.  This was obviously taken around Halloween and those lights don’t stay there year round!  LOL! 

But, here is the problem wall.  TV too high.  Too much space between TV and the stand below it.  I usually had picture frames on it and it was still too much space.  There is no good place to hang art since those little speakers were sticking out of the walls.  I knew my husband was proud of his speakers but this wall had to go! 

I spent months trying to figure out what to do.  Every time I’d find one of those nice wall shelving units that frames in the tv, the dimensions wouldn’t work.  Our tv was too high and it would be poking out above any of the shelving towers that we could put on each side.  Stupid.  Every option would look stupid rather than a solution.

Until IKEA saved the day!  I never got to say a whole lot about this part of our trip, but our last stop before coming home from PA was IKEA.  Before we went, I had done some measuring and I had a really good feeling that their modular bookshelf units were going to do the trick. 

Here’s some pics from the construction project that took the better part of two days. 

boxes everywhere!

he actually reads instructions

making modifications

We had to make some modifications since this is really a bookcase and not necessarily a tv stand/unit.  My husband did his handywork and we figured out what electronic component would go where so he could drill holes for all the cords. 

Oh so many cords.  We ended up having to drill more holes in another cabinet to hide the monster power strip my husband uses to fire up this wall of electronic bliss.  One for tv, one for Bose system, one for cable/dvr, another for who knows?  It’s a mess of cords and we wanted the shelving unit flush to the wall, yet wanted the cords to be safe. 

This next picture is where we hid the power strip, feeding the cords thru the back and my husband later drilled some bracket thingy right into the bottom of the cabinet to snap the power strip into.  I couldn’t help but call him “MacGyver” the entire time!

more modifications

And now . . .

drum roll please . . .

Ta-da!!

Here is our solution and it couldn’t have worked more perfectly.  The tv is framed in.  It no longer looks too high.  In fact, people have asked us if we lowered it.  Nope.  There is still room for photos or decor below it.  We can fill the cabinets with cool vases and we plan to put lights in there to illuminate the shelves.  The real perfection is how well it fits.  The speaker below the tv did not have to be moved.  The shelving fit in just below it.  So close.  We did move the upper speakers about 4 inches and fed the wiring thru the back panel of the shelving.  The solution was amazing.  Those two tall units had a height extension piece that we added to them.  This extra piece had a separate optional door that we didn’t get so that we could tuck our speakers in the cubbies and not have to worry about opening a door to hear the tv.  Genius!!

And the best part of all, it sits only 11 inches from the wall.  Half the depth of the previous piece we had there.  And even though it takes up way more wall space, we actually gained space in the room since it’s so slim and sleek.  We will probably put an accent chair on each side. 

Voila!  At least we could resolve one design problem for the moment.