our family room is long and narrow (about 12 ft wide). Here is how we handled that problem. I designed this custom entertainment center and then had the same guy that built my kitchen cabinets build this. It cost me about $4500.00. That is a Direct vent valor fireplace with remote control and a 52" Sharp Aquos TV. The surround of the fireplace is Onyx and it is backlit. We like the fireplace up higher , like you see, as the heat hits us right where we need it. Good Luck!! Gary

Hi Monica: Hubby and I are in our middle 40s and have never owned a video game either, so this was a "major" decision, LOL. When we played with our neighbor's Wii, we had so much fun (so it'd be a good party game even if you might not play it alone much). Hubby sure worked up a sweat trying out all the sports games like tennis, baseball, boxing, bowling, racing, etc. He liked the shooting (arcade-type, skeet shoooting stuff) games and the racing (Mario Kart) best. Same neighbor mentioned some of her nurses and patients had been talking about it before they bought theirs. These people are "well into" adulthood and not previous gamers either. Truly it is a game for ages 3 to 93. I read in our paper a few months back that some of the "seniors" places are getting Wiis to get the residents more active and to work on hand/eye coordination, etc. I think it's neat--finally something for the older set....tired of everything geared towards teens and their shoot-em-up "grand theft auto" games! Tracey

Jakefield-I feel the same way: I don't want to waste $$ on a piece I'm not even excited about. I have searched all the local furniture stores, but I need the piece in the next two weeks. I've actually settled on a couple of consoles at one of those stores that has everything in stock so we can pick it up. At $300-400 if I hate it in a few years I won't feel like I have to live with it because I spent a ton of $$ on it, and I'll use it elsewhere. Maybe I'm just sick of the look, but those media wall systems just look so cluttered to me right now. I am bummed that I lost all my closed storage though. I've spent the last two days getting rid of the stuff I had stored in the old unit. We have a wood stove on one side of this spot and a wall on the other. I guess I could push the console over a bit and put a plant on the non-woodstove side. Our old wall unit had doors that closed over the TV, but in our house it NEVER was closed unless I was home alone so I'm giving up on that idea. I'm just hoping someone can post some pics that give me some good ideas for what to put around the TV. Do pictures over the screen look odd?

Do you use it frequently? We use ours daily. We wake up to the news and I come home for lunch M-F and tune into shows during that time. We also watch TV at night, especially before bed. Do you spend the big bucks on cable for the TV and not watch it very often? Yes, and I feel ripped off with Directv. Also do you fight over it with your SO? No. We have multiple TVs so if we disagree on a show then I just watch in a different room. Our house isn't that big and it's just me and the hubby. We have a 54" in our living room and I don't consider that very big anymore. When we replace it someday we'll go to 65-70". Our living room is open to the kitchen and I have to squint to see the guide on my 54" so bigger is needed lol. In our bedroom I think we have a 46" ?? It's not very far from our bed so it's plenty big. And in the basement we have around a 50" but we never go down there. Our TVs are older but get the job done. It's so hard for me to spend money on an item when I have something that already works. So I just wait until things break. I'm down to my last working HDMI port on the living room TV so once that one goes then I'll cheerfully buy a new 65-70"...