The Greatest Love Story Ever Told (about me and a media hutch) Part 1

It is no secret that I HATE chords/cables of any kind, especially TV/DVD/PlayStation/any other kind of media chord you can think of.  The problem is that Ryan and I lo-oooove electronics.  In our old apartment our electronic paraphernalia was strewn about in a disorganized array of media heaven, and when people came over, we'd shove everything in some baskets and call it "cleaned up".  I always felt a little bothered by all the chords, remotes and cables, but I didn't really care enough to make things look nice in fear that if I put any effort into the apartment, it would take us that much longer to move out.  When we moved into our new grownup home, my dislike of chords/cables/remotes turned into full-blown anxiety.  I really couldn't get motivated to go to all the trouble to paint and decorate a room when that corner existed with all its chords just sitting there mocking me.  Anxiety turned into anger and I felt my sanity slowly starting to slip away...

Please turn your attention to Exhibit A:

Admittedly, this picture does quite capture the chord situation, but you can see how the cheap Target stand along with the height of the TV in comparison to the height of the ceiling is just all wrong...not to mention the remotes.  Ugh I'm getting a flare up just looking at this picture.

I decided that the solution to my problem was to buy some kind of media console and hutch where everything could be neatly stored out of sight.  Since we had our current TV stand in the corner of the living room (seen above), I thought a corner media hutch would be the most ideal setup.  I knew I'd had to shell out some $$$ for this but it was totally worth it for me.  Unfortunately, when I started looking around, the only reasonably priced media hutch was this guy from Ballard Designs for $1,499!  I actually considered saving up the money for the hutch knowing that we'd get a lot of use out of it.  It wasn't the exact color I wanted and was a little too big for the space I had in mind, but I was willing to work with it since I was desperate.  I also tried finding some instructions online that might help us build one on our own.  Queue laugh track.

A few weeks later I saw a media hutch at HomeGoods for $699.  Although it was a weird green color, had a broken door, and was for a flat wall instead of a corner, I thought I could make it work and even considered swapping the living room and dining room to accommodate the piece of furniture.  I remember telling my mom about it on the phone and trying to justify the purchase knowing that I shouldn't shell out $699 for anything unless it was perfect. Mom kindly offered us their media hutch, but I was pretty sold on the corner hutch idea so I decided to hold out.

I put the whole hutch thing on the back burner and proceeded with other projects I had around the house.  I figured I'd wait until the peak moving season (end of August - Sept.) to see if I could find something at a yard sale or on Craigslist.  One day, we randomly found ourselves at Ocean State Job Lot in Danvers and Ryan asked me if I wanted to go into Savers to check things out.  I HATE Savers almost as much as I hate chords but I reluctantly agreed to go in.

You should know that I have been envious of Erica for finding some amazing deals at Savers along with her ability to turn what I would think is a piece of junk into something beautiful.  For a while she was on a consistent Savers shopping streak (she got a patio set for next to nothing!) and I could not understand how every time I went there I found nothing, and every time she went there, she'd strike gold.  Therefore, I decided to channel my inner Erica and keep an open mind.

We walked into Savers and I was instantly annoyed and wanted to leave.  Just as I was about to give Ryan the "let's get out of here" look, lo and behold, I saw a halo of light beaming down on this beauty below and heard the soft sound of angels singing somewhere off in the Savers storage room...

As soon as I realized this could be "the one", I experienced what can only be described as a panic attack.  My heart started beating, my ears started ringing, and my hands started to get so grossly sweaty as I tried to motion for Ryan to come over.  I also got "the crazy eye" and unabashedly glared at anyone who even casually looked over in our (me and my media hutch's) direction.  We were a couple, and no one was going to break us up.  Ryan wasn't sure if our TV was going to fit.  I knew that if something this perfect was standing right in front of me, there was no way that it wasn't going to fit.  That just wasn't an option.

I dreaded to look at the price tag and see if there was a little pink "sold" tag on it.  I'm not going to lie, if I saw a sold tag on it, I would have seriously considered ripping it off (but I wouldn't have - I promise!).  You are free to judge me.  I'm just keeping it real.  Thankfully for me AND the person who might have already bought it, there was no sold sticker on my hutch and I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the $19.99 price tag!  In fact, I literally did not believe my eyes because after giving Ryan strict instructions to NOT leave its side, I ran (yes, ran) to the nearest sales associate and asked, "Is that corner media hutch really only twenty bucks!?" (so much for my poker face).  When she told me, "Yes" I said, "OK then I want to buy it but I can't pick it up until tomorrow.  Is that OK?!" (yes, I was using my "I'm so excited I'm kind of yelling" voice).  I wonder how many crazy people like me they see every day.  It's Savers so I'm going to assure myself that it's a lot. 

We took the family van along with my sister Carrie to pick up my new hutch the next day.  Ryan was still unsure of the measurements and didn't quite understand how it was going to fit in the corner.  I didn't care about those details.  For $19.99 I was determined to make it work and figured I could resell it for ten times the price if it really didn't work.  It was a painful process getting it home (should have taken out that second seat!), but I wasn't letting a couple feet of hutch hanging out the back of the van stop me from bringing it home, so I made Carrie sit in the back and hold on to it as I carefully drove the 4.7 miles home.  She's a trouper and I realize that I have some serious issues.

Part 2 is coming tomorrow where I reveal pictures of the new, repurposed media hutch and tell you how I did it!