Since we moved into our house, we've been talking about one day putting a TV above the fireplace. It only took us 3 and a half years to finally do it. I knew Jared was pretty handy around the house and good at fixing things, but he had a vision as to how this was all going to look once complete. And he was going to do it all himself. And he's never done anything like this before. And he didn't tell me a thing about just how he was going to do it. Now, you may be thinking 'Big deal, I put my TV on my wall too'. But there was a lot more to it than that. For one, we don't have an attic. So the wires had to be run through the wall. Two, part of the plan was to put a recessed cabinet in the wall to hold all of our entertainment accoutrement. Three, we couldn't find a cabinet that fit what we were looking for, so Jared was going to build it. And four, both the electric and the plumbing (because the entertainment cabinet was going to share a wall with the bathroom and reside in the cabinet under the bathroom sink) had to be rerouted in the process.

I don't know why I was skeptical about the whole thing, seeing as how Jared pretty much singlehandedly built our barn and has always been good at that kind of thing. Turns out I was being plain ol' silly because it's all done now, and it looks AMAZING. See for yourself.

The before photo. (Of course, it's not really the original before photo, seeing as how it doesn't have the original TV in it. But you get the idea.)

This is under the bathroom sink where the plumbing had to be rerouted from the right side (notice the hole) to the left side.

There used to be a cabinet above the toilet here. And now there are two big holes in the wall!! (These were used for running the many, many electric wires. And don't worry, the cabinet is back up in its original position.)

If you thought those holes were big, check out this giant one! Ack!! Just to give you some perspective, Leah is in the bathroom. I am in the living room. Talk about a lack of privacy in there!

Oh, the chaos of our living room mid-project. Notice the circular saw and caulk gun on the living room floor. That's normal, right?

With the help of some friends, the TV was mounted just in time for us to catch the last 4 minutes of last week's Eagles game (one of the few games that are seldomly televised down here in Cowboys country). Yay!!!

And the final product! Complete with shelves for photos and candles, and for our laptop and docking station, so we can watch things off of our computer on our TV (It's all connected). Combine all of the above with our new surround sound system that we got for Christmas and Jared's new Xbox 360, and you've got quite the entertainment experience!

Here you can see the rearranged furniture, which makes the room seem so much bigger. And there's Jared, playing his new toy on Christmas night. :) (Notice the sad, discarded original Xbox on the floor to the right.)