Far Out Son of Lung...

Rearrangement

Friday night I rearranged my apartment. Actually, Friday after work I stopped by a few Target consumption establishments looking for new entertainment style furniture so I could rearrange. I eventually found a midsize rectangular box, into which fit a small square box with a door on it. It was the perfect size (I guesstimated) for my TV and subwoofer.

The plan was to replace the "heart" chest's position in my hodgepodge entertainment center and use the chest as an end table. I didn't really know where my couches and coffee table would fit into all of this, but figured I could get it worked out once I'd gotten home, disassembled some things and mistakenly moved them into the wrong places.

Once home the box things (from here out refered to as my E.T.C.) went together quickly and easily. The smaller cube was fitted inside the larger box and fastened in place with a screw, and I decided that this would be a nice, clean location for my PS2. Fortunately, the larger box came complete with a hole drilled right in the center of the back wall so that cables could be run from various devices. The doored cube, however, had no hole in it, and this presented a problem. A problem that, after a few seconds deliberation, I decided I could fix with the use of a 1.5 inch hole saw. Two hobbled trips to the garage and a wealth of sawdust later, I had myself a hole and a perfect hiding place for my PS2.

The left half of the box, which remained open, is now populated with no less than five Case Logic CD cases. My Denon receiver and piece of shit TEAC 5-disc CD changer sit inside my last piece of Target-cheap entertainment center furniture on the left, and I still have a nice, revirberating and relatively hollow space for my subwoofer to sit on next to the TV. Since I had set up the new E.T.C. in the opposite corner from whence it existed, and had consequently drug all my furniture into one corner of the room, my next step was to place the couches. This part was easy, but I was sort of surprised they fit as well as they did. I placed the heart chest next to my loveseat (awww!) and stuck all the magazines inside so they wouldn't litter the coffee table, then used one of the Japanese rice paper lamps from the bedroom on the chest. Some Pier 1 "Ocean" votive candles now live happily on a bamboo tray (a la Container Store) atop the box, the colors of which match the Japanese wall scroll hanging above as well as the blue Chindi rug I have under the coffee table, which is sitting atop a white chindi rug as well. I know it all sounds rather girly, but I'm quite proud of the fact that my place has started to look more acceptable. Now I need some drapes.

Next step was running all the speaker wires. I have a 5.1 surround sound system from Sony, with the small speakers sitting on homemade shelves in each corner of the room. I had already run some wiring from my last set-up, but with the new placement of the ETC I needed to lengthen some wires and place some other new bits in place. I have the wiring laced up above the crown molding and held in place with thumbtacks, which works great unless you care about seeing a bunch of lamp cord up there. I don't. So, one more hobbled trip to the garage for my Hakko soldering gun and an hour's worth of clambering around on furniture placing wires, and I had my surround sound back in action. It sounds better then the last set-up because the speakers fire at the main couch instead of just into the room around it. Last time the couch was out of the focal point so the sound was good, but not great.

So, what's next? Seeing as how I have A and B speaker outputs, and two speakers sitting in my bedroom from my old POS stereo system, I thought I might run some more speaker wire into the bedroom to power those as well. It'd be an easy task to tackle tonight and I can hide the speakers on a bookshelf behind my Soulfly flag. I can have all the music I need piped through the apartment regardless of my location, and this seems like a cool idea. I might also pick up some of that plastic, automotive wire loom to make things super-ultra clean, especially the rat's nest that has been created behind my television.

posted by GreSam @ 08:55