Men are from Mars, Women are from Reality

Like most other men in America, my husband lives for the day when every surface in our

Not really him, but you get the idea

home will be capable of displaying television programming, preferably sports. Of any kind. (Sidenote: during the 2006 Winter Olympics, when, for some reason, only the really boring stuff was broadcast, he watched curling for 4 straight hours. Because it was a sport, and it was on TV.) He feels like we’re one step closer to his dream because we’re in the process of moving into a larger home, and while we have lots of stuff, we don’t necessarily have the right stuff. We’ve set aside a budget for upgrading/outfitting a few areas, and we’re making a plan for what we will prioritize into the future. His focus in this process is completely on the home theater. Here’s what he wants to do:

Get rid of the mid-90′s era tube TV, put the current 42″ Panasonic plasma in the living room, and set up an official home theater/gaming system in the family room, complete with a new 60″ flat panel HDTV. Get a new receiver, put all the home theater components in a rack system hidden in the laundry room, and get a radio frequency remote to control it all. And while we’re at it, get a smaller TV for the man cave/shop and another small TV for the kitchen.

What I like about his plan: I am all for ditching the behemoth tube TV that has taken up about fourteen cubic feet of space in our house since we got married. Especially if it gives us the opportunity to stream Netflix and Pandora. I also like that he’s thinking of ways to de-clutter the home theater room. With a rack behind the wall, all the components and cables would be out of the way. All we would see is a behemoth flat screen hanging on the wall.

What I’m concerned about: Four TVs? Really? Also, a 60″ screen is huge. The rule of thumb is multiply the screen size by 2.5 or 3 to determine a comfortable viewing distance.

60″ x 2.5 = 150″, 150″/12″ = 12.5 feet

60″ x 3 = 180″, 180″/12″ = 15 feet

Frankly, I’m not sure the room is that big. Plus, if we buy a TV of that size, pretty much every other project we have gets put on the back burner until we rebuild our “home improvement” fund. Because if we’re getting a big TV, it’s going to be a nice one. Not necessarily the top of the line, but something worthy of taking up an entire wall. There is no sense getting a TV that big if it doesn’t actually display a nice picture. Or let you stream movies and music.

I don’t want to crush his fantasy of the perfect home theater, but I would like to have some of the budget left over to address other issues, like the fact that the range, dishwasher, and refrigerator are white, while the over-the-range microwave is black. So if we can compromise on a slightly smaller TV (say a 52″ model), we can still put the rack/RF remote plan into action. The receiver may be bumped down the priority list behind the new microwave.

I’m planning to put off the two smaller TVs indefinitely.

Really, there’s only so much curling a girl can watch — when it doesn’t involve a bulging bicep and Matthew McConaughey.