Who Would've Thought
Who would've thought mounting a TV would be such a frustrating and character revealing experience!?
Here's a little backstory: my ex got all the TVs. This is a totally normal part of the divorce process - we decided between the two of us what the fair division of our assets were and I was completely fine with him taking the TVs. This did, however, leave me with some creative solutions while I saved up to replace them. One of these solutions was the projector.
When my boyfriend, Jesse, learned that I was TV-less, like the sweetheart that he is, he bought me a projector. We had so much fun with it, too. We hung up a sheet outside of my house and watched movies from our childhood. We created a small movie theater in my den by dragging the couch into the middle of the room with a movie projected above the fireplace. And we cozied up with my pup projecting movies on the wall across from my bed. It provided so much fun and entertainment... but with the projector, you have to have a laptop and the laptop needs a charger and the laptop and the projector need a cord to connect the two. While it was so fun, it was also a big mess. Eventually it was time to finally get myself a big girl TV.
So off to Best Buy I went. I got myself a small, reasonably priced TV, a mount and all the accoutrement needed to thread the wires behind the wall. Jesse agreed to lend me a hand and I was ready to get my movie watching on like a real live adult!
First of all, I've said it before and I'll say it again, God be with you to all of my fellow plaster walled friends. I am of the unshakable believe that one needs the hammer of Thor to drive a nail into plaster. Getting the mount on the wall... like just the mount, not the TV... was so hard that both Jesse and I had sweat beads on our brows when it was over. But at least that was the worst of it... we thought. Next we attached the TV to the mount and cut our holes into the wall for the cords to hide. One behind the face of the TV and one just above the baseboard below the TV.
We wrapped our cords in a cord protector like the responsible adults that we are and we dropped those bad boys into the top hole to thread down the back side of the wall. But oh no, of course it wouldn't be that easy. The insulation behind my wall was crammed up against the plaster and the cords were getting stuck. We couldn't, for the life of us, get the wires to the bottom! We uncoiled a coat hanger to shove the wires down and let me just go ahead and tell y'all, that didn't help. We tried to thread cardboard down the hole to push the insulation back and create a sort of slide situation for the wires to go down. This wasn't the worst idea but it wasn't the best ether. We eventually cut a third hole in the wall so we could reach our hand in and grab the cords half-way through and continue the threading process down to the bottom.
With a combo of a washer and string guide-wire and the whole cardboard slide situation we finally did it, but both Jesse and I were honestly at the end of our ropes. We were both frustrated and tired. This was supposed to be simple and it wasn't. It was supposed to take an hour or so and it definitely didn't. I can speak for myself here and say that along with the frustration of the project was guilt for dragging Jesse into it with me. And while I felt really guilty, I also knew I couldn't do it without him... Aaaand in my less glamorous moments, I tend to respond to guilt and helplessness with even more feelings of frustration... soooo things weren't looking pretty on the inside of my head. I have no idea what Jesse was feeling and I can't speak for him, but I can say I was observing very real frustration in him too.
But you know what? We were both angry at the project and we continued to work well together. We put our discouraged little heads together and we came up with the silliest solution (read: cardboard slide) and we got the job done. Now I have a TV mounted on my wall with the cords successfully hidden behind the wall... and also a giant extra hole that I had to patch... but we did it! I can totally patch a hole and I can totally tackle hard and annoying projects with my partner.
I didn't know it when I started the project but I've left the experience feeling more confident in my choice to be with Jesse and more confident in our growing partnership together. Who would've ever thought!