That's All, Polks

We bought these beauties:

What are they, you ask?  They are Polk Audio ceiling speakers.  We got a specific kind and I really don't know much about speakers, so I can't tell you exactly which ones or why.  But here are the reasons why I agreed to purchase these speakers even though we already had speakers which worked perfectly fine with our system:

1. Josh eventually wants to upgrade everything we own in the audio system/home theater area.  This was just one of the steps in that process.
2. The speakers we used to have worked just fine and they were of the same brand.  BUT... they were black.  They were on the wall.  They were ugly.  This is the picture of them on the wall in our old townhouse seen here:

They were box-y and large and stuck out of the wall like a sore thumb.  I didn't even know that ceiling speakers existed until Josh pointed them out recently.  You can get them in white or off-white to match your ceiling and they fit right in.  The hole that you cut is actually smaller than the outside of the speaker itself.  You stick the actual speaker into the hole and mount the white part on the ceiling over the hole.  So there is no clean up, no painting or Spackle-ing after that.  And if you're thinking "Well, that's great, but my ceiling is [insert any other color than white or off-white]".  That's great, too, because you could just paint the white part to match your ceiling (or leave them white... it might look cool).  So, the grand reveal:

Pretty cool, huh?  I am impressed for sure!  Josh and his friend installed them in only an hour or two and they look and sound great.  In other living room news, the TV stand we ordered was delivered to our local best Buy this past weekend.  My dad and Josh picked it up and installed it for us.  

We wanted something that was low and long.  We needed space for 6 electronic devices and we found this one at Best Buy on sale.  We really like the color of wood (which we hope to match closely when we finally buy end tables and a coffee table).  We will eventually mount the TV to the wall and put the middle speaker on the top of the TV stand.

Our selling points were:  The color, the price, the hardware (silver), the size (fits in our house), and the simplicity.  We don't really like elaborate furniture with lots of twists and turns.  This fits our style and personality the best.    

So, if you remember from my last living room post, we had a countdown list of things that needed to be done before we could paint in that room (which is the main goal).  Here is our updated Pre-Paint To-Do List:

1. Wait for the TV stand to be shipped and make sure we like it and like the color of wood against a teal wall.
2. Mount our TV on the wall (mounting hardware is already purchased)
3. Install new in-ceiling speakers.
4. Run all of the wires through the wall and install all electronics. (Actually, this is 99% completed.  Josh just needs to add one more piece of hardware behind the TV when he mounts it to run the power cord down behind the wall.)

Woo-hoo!  In other-other news, did you guys feel that earthquake today?  That was nuts!  I was in an in-service for school and I will be honest, it really scared me because I had never felt one before and I was certain what it was immediately.  But our instructor just says, "Don't worry, they're always doing construction".  Immediately after it ended, the instructor just keeps going like nothing happened!  When we were saying to each other, "What was that?" "Was there an earthquake?" "Did you see the lights moving?!", he was just looking at us like we had two heads for interrupting his lecture!  What a dweeb!

Speaking of dweeb, I got my final grades back for grad school last night and I am terribly upset to admit that I earned a B+ in my third grad school course.  If you know me, you know I am a perfectionist and that a B+ doesn't exactly cut it in my book.  But if you know me well enough, you will also know that I earned two B's in undergrad.  And I say "earned" with absolute certainty.  I was in a "eff college" phase during one of them and simple forgot to take a test (How does one do that?!) and during the other one, I started out working my behind off and realized that being a perfectionist in the most ridiculously hard course I have ever taken was impossible.  Not to mention that I hated the subject and really wasn't interested!

But this time was different.  I worked SUPER hard (harder than I have ever worked, in fact) and I still got a B+.  I did not, however, earn a B+.  In my books, I earned an A.  But, regardless, I will still be reimbursed for my tuition and I will still continue with and (hopefully) graduate in the program.  So all is okay with the world.  And something that settles my nerves is my new favorite song: