Young House Love

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Buying A Bigger TV

I’m not sure any of you have noticed, but we have a tiny TV. Well, some of you have definitely noticed because you keep laughing at us and commenting about how overdue we are for a bigger one. And as the resident man of the house, I have to say I agree. Our little 26-incher made sense in the old house, where our den was so narrow that I could practically change the channel with my toe…

Final Den Take 2

But now that we have a bit more space in our current living room (we actually miss the cozy-ness of our first living room, but love having extra room for Clara to play/run around), the phrase “we really need a bigger TV” gets uttered anytime a subtitle pops up, a news ticker rolls across the screen, or we have anyone over to watch a movie with us. Yeah, we can’t read those things without standing up and walking halfway across the room. But a new TV is something we’ve just been putting off and putting off, which is surprising considering how much TV we watch.

Living Room1

But ever since we got the tip that February and March were the best times to buy a TV (supposedly these post-Christmas, post-Super-Bowl months are the television industry’s slow season, and when demand is low, prices can drop) we’ve been waiting for the right moment to seize the day and just upgrade already. And after a bit of research, a bit of chatting with my brother-in-law Martin (who went through a vigorous research process of his own a few months ago), and a bit of price checking – we narrowed it down to these two TVs – a Vizio and a Samsung, both sold at Target:

TV Decided Between Two

They’re both LCDs, both 1080p, and both in the neighborhood of 40″. They were also both eco models that only cost $17 a year to run, so they’re very low on the energy scale (the lowest we saw was $15 a year for a costs-double LED). The around 40″ size wasn’t any magic number that we calculated, it’s just what we arrived at after discussing that we wanted something big, but not crazy-big (and when we held up a tape measure at home, it felt right). Both had 4+ star reviews on Target, Amazon, Walmart and a few other sites that came up on our Google search. Any idea what we ended up choosing?

Naturally, we went for the $100 cheaper / 2″ larger Vizio. But that $449.99 wasn’t our final price. You know us and our coupons…

TV Coupons In Store

The reason we wanted to buy our TV at Target was:

  • They were having a temporary price cut – taking it from $479 to $449
  • We have a Target credit card, which gives us 5% off every purchase – knocking it down to $427
  • Target randomly sent us an “additional 5% off all HDTVs on top of the 5% for using your card” coupon (I think coupons like these go out to Target cardholders) – shaving it down to $406
  • We had a couple of leftover Christmas gift cards, which left our final out-of-pocket cost at $356

Which isn’t bad considering our much tinier TV was purchased for about that much five years ago (we think that old TV will either go into another room or get craigslisted). So after 15 months of staring at our too-small TV and saving up/stalking sales, we brought that baby home. And Burger couldn’t have been more excited to watch… the news? Seriously Vizio? You thought this lady was the most exciting graphic to show on your box? Can’t a guy get an exotic underwater scene with fish and coral in all colors of the rainbow? Or at least a charging bull or a running horse or something with a little speed/excitement?

TV 3 Vizio Box

Before we set it up, we wanted to try to capture exactly what sort of an upgrade we were making. So here’s a pic of our old TV:

TV 1 Before From Couch

Ridiculous, isn’t it? It’s a bit exaggerated because this is a small picture of a small TV, but you get the idea. So we broke out the new guy just for comparison’s sake. It’s starting to look a bit better, right? It’s also starting to look like we’re gonna need a bigger media console too (we’ve been planning to build something from scratch or retrofit something from the thrift store, so we’ll keep you posted).

TV 4 Both TVs On Stand

Here’s that view from the couch with the new TV on. Hey look, now you can actually tell that we were watching Cougar Town now! As in, all of the letters are readable now (again, this isn’t a life sized photo, it’s a small picture of a TV across the room, so in person it’s a lot bigger and reading small things like the subtitle are now no sweat). Whew.

TV 7 After From Couch

Oh and we tethered it to the wall with a wire that came with the TV along with a screw and heavy duty anchor (we may eventually mount it on the wall, once we figure out what’s going on under it so we can determine the height, etc). But for now this will at least keep it from tipping.

TV 5 Tethered To Wall

Hopefully this is just the beginning of updating that whole area of the living room. We definitely think it needs a bigger piece of furniture – preferably with more storage and a bit more height – to ground our big new TV friend. But until then, we’re just happy to give our squinting muscles a break… and of course we’re happy to have the Cul De Sac Crew back in our lives.

TV 6 After From Ottoman

Is anyone else making any television upgrades lately? Or just watching some good TV? Now that the book shoots are done, maybe we’ll actually have time to watch the boob tube again! So much catching up to do. But you know we’re up to date on The Walking Dead so nobody spoils that for us. Haha.

Comments

  1. Stefanie says

    Great purchase! We recently upgraded to a 42″ LG in our living room and I’m in love. The picture is flawless. We opted for one with the DVD player in it to cut down on wires.

    I was weary of mounting ours because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with all the wires (being able to see wires drives me INSANE) but I recruited my carpenter stepfather and we came up with the idea of building a false wall to mount it on. It worked out beautifully. Not only were we able to mount the TV without the wire eyesore but it fancied the wall up too. Just wanted to plant another idea in your heads! =)

    Reply

  2. Kristen says

    I love the deets on your tv deal and it definitely looks like a better fit for your living room… but the thing that made me laugh the most was John’s disappointment about the box. The funny thing? That’s Hannah Storm, an anchor for ESPN… I assume they thought that’d get mens attention!? haha.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Isn’t that funny? Others have filled us in and we just thought “oh” – someone guessed they couldn’t have actual sports footage for rights reasons so they went with the anchor instead. Too funny.

      xo,
      s

  3. Erin R says

    Congrats on the upgrade! We now have our second Vizio and absolutely love it. We went from a 32″ (wedding gift from in-laws) to a 46″ (Christmas gift from inlaws – gotta love those guys!). We only have a digital antenna but the picture is amazing!

    Reply

  4. Natalie says

    Yay for new a new TV! My husband has plans to replace our tv for one of those ginormous 70″ ones after he gets back from Afghanistan. He totally deserves it though for all he does :)

    Reply

  5. Kim says

    Woohoo for new TVs! I’d probably go bigger because your living room looks gargantuan, but it is a major improvement!

    I got a new job last summer and with my first big paycheck, I went and bought myself a 46″ Sony Google TV! Talk about a major upgrade from my sad little 20″ I had in my living room. My TV stand was on wheels so I had to scootch it up closer to the couch to see it. Haha! Such an awesome upgrade, especially as it will always remind me of my big promotion. :)

    Reply

  6. Leah says

    I just noticed that both side tables for your couch are much lower than the couch arm. I had always thought the side tables were suppose to be as level with the couch arm as possible…but I have no idea why I thought this/where I got this from. Did you ever do a post on this issue – the critical decision of how tall one’s side table should be?! Ha.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh those are just a little ottoman and a ceramic stool. They’re too little, I just parked them there for function (sometimes we’ll put stuff on them while we lounge, and the tan ottoman stores some of Clara’s toys). But generally, a bigger side table would be recommended, just so it looks proportionate! Haha.

      xo,
      s

  7. Abbey says

    That old TV kicked ass (sad voice). :) Congrats on the new one. Love CougarTown, I hope it doesn’t get cancelled!!!

    Reply

  10. Kati L says

    We got a 48″ Vizio last summer (our old TV bit the dust) and it had an almost life-size shot of Beyonce on the front! lol! We got ours at Costco, because they were having a great sale and they always double the manufacturer’s warranty (so the 1-year warranty became a 2-year), which was nice. So far, we’ve loved it!

    Reply

  11. Whitney B says

    Ah yaye!! Yep– Reason #3,426 that we could totally hang– we looove us some CougarTown!! Do you drink your Big Karls whilst you watch the hilarious banter on your new tv?? Enjoy!

    Reply

  12. carley says

    Looks great!

    When we moved to our house a little over a year ago, we went from our teeny, tiny townhouse to having a living room and a family room. Our Christmas present to ourselves that year was a tv for the living room. We went big with a 55″. If felt like we were in a movie theater!

    Dexter’s playroom still has our old tube style tv. We figure since it is located in Dexter (and now Annie’s!) playroom, we will give it sometime before we upgrade there!

    Reply

  13. Ericka says

    We just got a 47″ LG TV (LCD) and we love it! It replaced our little 27″ old tube TV. It was a floor model with the same warranty and everything. They made a mistake of charging us for a 42″ TV instead of the 47″ we actually got. So we ended up paying a little over $500. We noticed a not so great picture when we first got it home and did research to find out that using HDMI cable is the way to go. We also upgraded to HD channels. The picture is amazing now!

    Enjoy your new TV!

    Reply

  14. Sara says

    TV is a swear word for me currently. We already have 47″ that we got four years ago and paid off with the free financing program via Best Buy. My husband now wants to upgrade to a 60″ or ugh an 80″. With some of the programs/discounts with the company he works for we could get it at half the price it retails for; but, I’m pretty sure this is a guy thing and bigger is most certainly not better…especially when you are planning to have ninos running around soon. Any advice at deflecting this arguement?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hmm, it’s a toughie when one person feels so strongly for something while the other person doesn’t want it. In our house, we have a Full Agreement Agreement, which basically means we don’t buy/do anything we don’t agree on. That way we don’t fill the house with things that make us resent each other. So if we didn’t agree on a new TV we wouldn’t buy one until we found one that we both agreed on. Not sure if that would work in your house though!

      xo,
      s

    • Elizabeth says

      I would agree with your husband.

      Can he get me that 80″ at a discount, too?

      LOL! ;-)

  15. Wendy says

    We got a new tv at the beginning of February ($600 off the original price – waaay too good a deal to pass up). If you decide you want to put it on the wall, you can buy brackets to wall mount them in the store, but check Amazon first. At the store, the bracket was $30 but we got ours for $5 on Amazon!

    Reply

  16. Liz Lynch says

    Hey, where did you get that tv stand? That’s exactly what I need to solve my childproofing problems! Non-huge, glass-doored tv stands are remarkably hard to come by.

    Reply

  17. Lindsay says

    Great idea with securing it to the wall!!! Do you know if this will work with a SONY TV or if they have something similar???

    Reply

  18. GretchenF says

    Speaking of Target, have you seen the white ceramic horse head and the red Fu dog they have now? They are both on sale and made me think of you.

    Reply

  19. Carrie says

    We just went through this! Got rid of our clunker of a tube tv and bought a Samsung 60 inch led 3d (hey if your going big go really big right?!) we love it and scored a killer deal knocking a thousand dollars off of it! We found our wall mount on amazon for $75. It was on major clearance, hand 5 stars, did the tilt full motion thing with free shipping. After oodles of research we found amazon to be the best price for a mount. Check it out! And good to hear there is some as obsessed with the walking dead as we are :)

    Reply

  21. abby says

    we LOVE our Vizio! Apparently they use the exact same innerds as Samsung and other high end brands…they just make the frame less expensive….great deal! Nice work :)

    Reply

  22. kimberly says

    Um…our TV is a 13-inch that I got when I went to college (in 1996)…we’ve had 2 other (larger) hand-me-down tv’s in the past, but they both died and we just haven’t invested the $$ in a new one. Our living room is HUGE and people laugh (the tv is held in our wine cabinet, so we only show it off to our closest friends), but I’ve (my husband doesn’t watch much tv) gotten used to it. The only time it annoys me is when I’m watching a game from our kitchen and I can’t see the score, let alone who has the ball…but I have some binoculars to help out with this ;) Once we have kids & are more homebound, we’ll probably buy one, but for now, I’d rather spend the money on traveling :)

    Reply

  23. Heidi Brose says

    We upgraded last year. Our living room is about the size of your old living room and we went from a 26″ to a 55″! I thought we’d get about about a 42″ but it wasn’t big enough. Now it’s like being in a movie theatre. I never thought I could love TV so much.

    Have you all tried Up All Night? It’s my favorite new comedy.

    Reply

  24. Trisha says

    Congratulations on the new purchase. We are still stuck in small TV land. We have a itty-bitty TV I purchased it when I was in college from Kmart we haven’t even upgraded to the flat screen model.

    Reply

  25. Haley says

    Good buy! Vizio is a great brand, we own one too! I am also in the market for a new console table… that side of my living room has definitely been neglected!! But I did recently add some new shelves to the other side of the living room that were inspired by your open shelves in your FABULOUS kitchen!! Stop by and check them out!

    http://adashofkennedy.blogspot.com/2012/03/from-gangly-gallery-wall-to-superb.html

    P.S. do you know how to make a link within a comment?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      So pretty! Love the charming things on the shelves, especially the “all you need is love” art. True day. As for making a link within a comment- I have no idea! I’m sure our savvy readers know though- someone spill the beans!

      xo,
      s

  26. ROK says

    On the media unit–i’ve got kids and a living room we all live in…get a media console with doors (or drawers). No matter what people say about baskets, when they grow up from stuffed animals and blocks to board games and puzzles YOU WANT DOORS BADLY. I know this isn’t rocket science, but I thought the lower level baskets were fine and the price was right…when my daughter was 1. 3 yrs pass and I stare at Candyland and Scrabble Jr. boxes (which are really hard to style). Next it will be an xBox with controllers…..

    Reply

  27. nicky says

    okay, my mind must really be in the gutter b/c when you wrote “exotic underwater scene”, i first read it as “erotic underwear scene” and i about spit out my coffee. phew, i’m glad that was just a misread. HA!
    oh and awesome TV btw :)

    Reply

  29. Marina says

    I had an old, huge bodied, TV that was still (sort of) working and I’m of a mind that if it’s not broke you can’t replace it. Sometime last year the picture started squishing down into a thin line, so I opened the back and vacuumed it out (someone told me there might be arching caused by dust causing the squishing), and it appeared to help for a while, but eventually the squishing came back. So I got me a new flat screen LED 32” (my living room is even narrower than your previous den), so this thing feels like a 50” in my place. It’s fantastic! I can’t believe how much real-estate I’ve gained getting rid of that beast of a TV. I also built an entertainment/filing cabinet to go with it.

    Walking Dead ROCKS! Me want pet zombies! :o)

    Reply

  30. Amy says

    When we bought our tv, we weren’t even planning on it. But I was browsing the local classifieds when I found it, a pretty new 32″ LED for about $150. After some quick research, turns out it was a pretty good one. When we contacted the seller, he asked us if we wanted his Xbox, Kinect and games too. He would do the whole bundle for $350. We weren’t looking for an Xbox either, but at that price, how could we pass it up? Turns out the Xbox was the Halo Reach edition that costs $400 by itself!

    I don’t usually impulse buy, but there was no way I could pass up a deal like that. We used to just watch tv on one of our computers, and it is so nice to finally be able to sit on the couch together and watch movies. Being able to use voice commands to control everything is just icing on the cake.

    Reply

  33. Leah says

    Hi guys, TV looks great! Hope you are enjoying it.

    I have a random question- we are thinking about painting/re-flooring a bedroom but are having a hard time envisioning it. Is there a website/program where were we could upload a photo and change the wall/floor color? I have no idea if something like this exists but I thought I’d as the only DIY experts I “know” haha. Thanks! :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh man, someone linked to one on Pinterest the other day. Maybe go to pinterest.com and search “change wall color program”? The hard thing to remember is that some sites offer photos of stock rooms in any color, but you can’t always upload your own pic!

      xo,
      s

  35. Vel says

    I never noticed the doorwalls on either side of the tv. I think that was the first time I’ve seen a house photo from that angle. It’s the perfect spot. I’m sure you’ll love the bigger tv.

    Reply

  36. Kimberly says

    Why yes, yes we are planning a TV upgrade. But ours was worse than yours . . . we were still using a CRT tv that we scored for free on craigslist when we moved 3.5 years ago. It’s so bad that when we’re watching sports on TV, the conversation goes something like, “Can you see, is that 16-13?” “No, it’s 18-15.” And then before a commercial break they show the score larger and it ends up being 23-24 or something silly.

    Anyhoo, himself has an eye on a Sharp Aquos, and we’ve been putting it off forEVER. But before Easter, it’s ON.

    Reply

  37. Momcat says

    Okay so I am FOREVER reading stuff off your blog out loud to my husband across the room, but there is *NO WAY* I am reading out “So, YHL wants to know if anyone is making television upgrades” out loud to HIM!!!

    He’s always ready to jump at new electronics, so we have to have a LOT of discussion before approvals are given….

    So, shhhhh….. wouldja mind keepin’ it down about the new TV over there?!!!

    Reply

  38. annie says

    Funny, you may have given me the nudge to go out and purchase a bigger, better computer monitor. See, I didn’t recognize the ‘Cougar Town’ title screen, so I read it at first as “Captain Fern” which I naturally thought was a new pirate show (looks like a map) of sorts that you turned on for Clara’s viewing pleasure. Whoops. So not the case.

    Reply

  39. Nik says

    Here is a suggestion you may have already thought of, but maybe you should put your old TV in your guest room … that way visitors have a whole space of their own to enjoy.

    Reply

  40. Leah says

    I’m in the market for a tv upgrade too and I know nothing about tv’s so thanks for the review! One question though…is your tv 60Hz or 120Hz? I keep seeing that and I don’t really know what the difference is. Thanks!

    Reply

  42. Nicole Marie says

    We just recently upgraded from a 27 in. to a 32 in. And we also got it at Target! I wish I would have had that extra 5% discount coupon. I have the Target debit card, and I don’t think they send as many coupons for the debit cardholders. Anyone else had the same issue?

    Reply

  43. Laura says

    My husband and I splurged on a 60″ 3D TV and finally mounted it on our brick fireplace wall this past weekend. I hate big TVs, but this was a compromise, as he wanted the 65″. Now that it’s on the wall, he thinks it looks to small, but it’s not moving. That TV will stay with us forever.

    Reply

  46. Lorri says

    Sa-weeeeet! Does this count as one of your birthday gifts Sherry? ;) My birthday was Sunday – I also turned 30…shall we take a moment to mourn together? Please tell me I wasn’t the only one freaking out about the big 3-0! The hubby and I went skydiving on Sunday, I guess it was my version of the guy that buys a Ferrari during a mid-life crisis. I wrote about my skydiving shenanigans here: http://123-ellemnop.blogspot.com/2012/03/birthdays-parachutes-and-photobooths.html

    Hope your birthday was great hon!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, the whole day I was joking that I no longer start with a 2, but it’s not so bad! So far thirty has been awesome! I’m going with “thirty is the new twenty!”

      xo,
      s

  48. Kelly says

    Congrats on the your TV! I actually have a long-ish post up on my own blog today about our new (BIG) TV and the search for what to put the darn thing on. Yours looks just right!

    Reply

  49. jenny G. says

    That’s funny. We have two tvs: a Samsung, and a Vizio. Actually, I think we have a 42″ Vizio, so maybe it’s the same one? We got it at Costco for about what you paid. I have to say, we MUCH prefer the Samsung, but it is plasma, so I’m pretty sure that’s why. Nevertheless, we’ve had the Vizio for almost 4 years now and it’s held up just fine!

    Reply

  50. Kristan says

    If it were up to me, I’d still have my 19″ tube TV from 1989. The boyfriend however is always pushing for bigger! newer! flatter! One of ours is a Vizio and I was skeptical at first as I hadn’t heard of the brand, but I love it.

    Reply

    • Elizabeth says

      My 20″ tube TV lives on in my office at work…along with rabbit ears and a digital converter box! Very low-tech but it works for us to watch “Cheaters” during lunch. LOL!

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