Midwestern Midcentury

How to Install a Television in a Wall in Two Short Years - Part Three

If you are looking at the photo above and don't know what it is, make haste and immediately read PART ONE and PART TWO of this serial saga.

For those of you hanging on every word of my tv-in-the-wall home entertainment quest, we last left our hero (me) on the verge of completing a project started nearly two years earlier.  My teachers in school often told my parents that, "(insert name here) doesn't apply himself!"  They said other things too, but maybe they were onto something.

I digress.

When I unscrew the electrical junction box to reposition it I get a sinking feeling there's a two-by-four behind it.  An exploratory mission with a hand saw confirms my suspicion.  I mark out the area for the cut-out and saw away.  If you recall, the cut-out was required to accommodate the delth of the TV, sans its busted rear shell.

 

Yup, that's a two-by-four.  And it's in my way.  It's not load-bearing, so I borrow a nifty saw from my dad.

The saw works, but the angle is awkward and it takes forever.  Geez.  While were here, please note the vent in the left side of the frame.  I decide it will have no purpose once I nail in a shelf, so I enlarge the hole in the top of this space and place to reposition it there.

Here you can see the two-by-four-ectomy is complete, and shelf made from lumber scraps is in place, and the hole in the upper left has been squared off for the vent.  Amazingly, I remembered to remove the vent from its lower location before I entombed it with the shelf.  Not my usual operating procedure.  As you can see, I also spackled some of the dings in the wallboard to tidy things up visually.

"Neatness counts," another teacher told me.

Then I began painting the entire interior with flat black latex.  I originally planned to move the electrical junction box, but then decided not to mess with it.  I thought it would sort of disappear when painted, and that's what happened.  Do you suppose this paint would work on my credit card balances?

After two heavy coats of paint I replace the front trim piece and tighten with a sheet rock screw.  As a finishing touch I countersing the screw head, spackle it, sand, and paint it black.  It too disappeared like lutefisk at a Norwegian-American Christmas Eve dinner.

Overhead I tapped into my satellite cable feed and power.  There was actually an AC plug-in outlet above the suspended ceiling at this location!  How fortuitous!  And weird.

Here is the glorious after picture.  There are no photos of me carrying the television from the bar to a step stool, stepping up, and inserting this monster in the wall cavity.  My wife spotted* me during this perilous move.  It might have made a good YouTube video, though.  Again, I was careful to hook up any necessary cables before I picked it up.  I also remembered to protect the leading edge of the front trim piece by covering it with an old towel.

The TV slipped in like it was meant to be there.  The distance from front to back was ideal, and the set sits flat on the shelf just inside the front trim piece.  A perfect fit.

And its already been used for more than depressing international newscasts!

During the holidays my mother-in-law watched a Green Bay Packers game on the set, and visiting nieces and nephews hooked their Wii video game into the front AV inputs.  A set of S-video and accompanying audio input wires are available on the right hand side...should I ever need them.

All in all I'm very pleased with the results, and I plan to tackle more two-year mid-century modern home improvement projects almost immediately...if not sooner.

*FreeDictionary.com defines a spotter as, "One who is responsible for watching and guarding a performer during practice to prevent injury, as in gymnastics or weightlifting."  Yeh, that sounds about right.

How to Install a Television in a Wall in Two Short Years - Part Two

 

A move-damaged television set and a mysterious space in our lower-level wall combine to make a (hopefully) cheap and effective home entertainment project.  You'll find details on the genesis of this harebrained plot in PART ONE.

The photo above shows the space revealed when I removed painted wallboard.  A single shelf inside would have made things too easy.  Two levels means at least one has to go.

I began the project in late December 2007.  Finally, in September 2009 I am inspired to spend an hour or two picking away at the paneling insert.

 

2008
The shelf on the right proves to be rather subborn and I'm trying to be careful to prevent damage to the stone trim and surrounding wood paneling (circa 1978). 

 

I get all the paneling out, remove the shelf, and then do nothing until February of 2009.  Why rush?
 

2009
In March of aught nine I decide it might be a good idea to take another look at the television.  It needs some prep for insertion into the wall and I really should make sure it still works.  Above is the broken shell from the back of the TV.  I consider reassembling it (with black duct tape) only briefly, and then revert to my orginal plan of wall insertion sans case.

In side near the back I discover these two connectors were pulled loose.  It was a simple matter to plug them back in.  I looked for more damage, but didn't see any.  They say these old tube TV sets can hold a large capacitance charge.  Watch what you touch, and don't blame me if you try this at home and get a nasty shock!

 

More broken pieces gathered on the bar and then migrated to the trash.

I test-fire the TV with a DVD player and...it works!  To celebrate, I buy flat black latex paint.  Smug and satisfied, I do nothing for a month.

In March 2009 my father offers to cut a piece of wood trim for the front of the TV shelf.  He has cool woodworking tools, and he measures twice and cuts once.  I always get that saying mixed up when I'm working on something.

I'm hoping that cinching this board down will pull the stone up enough so it won't rub anymore on the top of the swinging door below.

I drill pilot holes on each side at an angle and use sheet rock screws to tighten it down.  The project is beginning to come together, but our personal and business lives take a turn and I am unable to return to the project for nine months.

In PART THREE, with multiple holiday gatherings in the offing, I get serious and finish the job.  It should have been all downhill, but one last challenge stood between me and the TV-in-the-wall-of-our-mid-century-modern-house project.

Hint: This Sony glass picture tube television weighs just as much now as it did with the flimsy plastic case on the back, and I don't deadlift very often.

Actually, I never do.

How to Install a Television in a Wall in Two Short Years - Part One

2007
Our move from Los Angeles to our mid-century modern house the Midwest in March of year noted above generated a handful of transportation casualties.  A cracked futon frame that was easily glued, a bent metal case on a Sony VCR that I removed and hammered out, and a cracked (to smithereens) case on our 28 inch Sony television.  Crushed by our own belongings, our vidid video turned into a top-heavy "floppy" screen.

It's amazing how important that busted shell was to the structural integrity of the TV!  Broken case or not, it had the same tonnage attributed to large glass TV picture tubes.

 

On the original blueprints, one of the lower level rooms in our house is labeled "Recreation Room."  The plans also show these built-in cabinets that were obviously reworked during the 1978 remodel.  The upper area featured a mysterious blanked-out area.

Now, how can we combine our unfortunate moving damage with this boarded up space into one quick and easy home-improvement project?

How about putting the now cabinetless TV in the mystery space in the wall?  That way small children (and adults) playing video games would be less likely to receive deadly shocks while fiddling with input connections.  Shouldn't I check to see if the TV stills works?  I don't even know if the space will be deep enough.  It seems to be tall and wide enough.

I am so confident that I start tearing out the wallboard after Christmas 2007.

The painted moulding holding in the black painted wallboard comes out pretty easy.  I poke a small hole through the center of the sheet rock, grab it, and out it comes.

Hmmm.  More paneling underneath and a series of openings, shelves, and wiring that suggests the space has been used previously for home entertainment.  Am I channeling a previous owner?  The house has wall speakers in several spots on the lower level.  Could this have been the tiny electronic brain of a central hi-fi system?

I measure the depth and I come up dissappointingly short.  As it is, the TV would sit too far forward.  I poke an exploratory hole through the back wallboard.  Eureka!  Two more inches of depth.

I am so pleased with my progress that I do nothing for several months.