What came first, the telly or the sofa?

Reblog:
Seeing as we don’t have either, this could be a challenge in our new house!
Interesting observations on my walk this morning with the dog, but first I’ll take you back almost forty years to my first marriage and first house (it will only be a short visit).

The room was 12′ by 18′ into the recess that classed as the ‘diner’ bit of our lounge/diner.
With a door leading out directly into the back garden, it was fortunate that we didn’t have a lot of furniture when we set up home.
We knew our neat and comfortable layout would be ruined as soon as we got a telly, as the only place for it was in the corner by the window, currently occupied by our Hi-Fi system.
We were right.

OK, fast forward to now, and as is the common theme of homeownership today, moving is no longer an option but extending the existing property .
Most of the semis on the Avenue have been extended sideways and/or behind, and that does not mean porches or entrance lobbies, but proper rooms of varying proportions to accommodate either a growing family or bigger TV set.
Stop laughing, I’m actually serious.

My route this morning was redirected due to a Sheltie party blocking the cut through (four owners, six shelties and a greyhound) to which I said good morning, got hostile stares from all but the greyhound lady, so took Maggie ‘in reverse’ round the figure of eight.
Or at least tried to.
Approaching the school, there was a young Mum with a pushchair containing a small child chatting to a friend. She had a beagle puppy on a lead, and Maggie was loose, so I stayed on the other side of the road rather than run the risk of Puppy wanting to play, Maggie getting huffy, and a potential punch up which could have resulted in an overturned pushchair, crying if not injured child, and two annoyed women yelling at me to keep my dog under control (yes, this has happened to me, but it wasn’t a beagle and Maggie didn’t start it).

So, walking on the now unfamiliar side of the road, I decided to stay there, and Maggie was in her element as there were a lot of new smells to sniff so it took longer than usual (sigh).
Gone are the days of the modest 26 inch screen TV, and in its place you have 40, 45, 50 or more telly inches dominating your living space.
Gone also are the days when net curtains were up to stop passing prying eyes (like me 😉 ), as most windows now provide a clear unrestricted view of modern ‘living arrangements’.
As an aside, do you view this (excuse pun) as an invitation to admire what the residents have got, or an advertisement for the lawbreaking opportunist wanting ‘second hand’ goods for the next car boot sale? Just a thought.

I would guess that roughly 80% of the houses I pass have big flat screen tellies. Some are free-standing (probably under training for the Big One, or the owners are waiting for the extension to be finished before taking delivery), but most are up on the wall.
Nice that, watching a big screen as if you’re at the pictures without the cost and rip off pop corn. However, in a cinema, you are normally in front of the screen, at worst in an arc around it, but not sideways on.
What I noticed today was the number of sofas against windows or back walls and TVs on the wall at 90º to the line of vision.
This would therefore suggest that either the sofa was there first and there is nowhere else to put it in the room so everyone is developing stiff necks on hinges to watch the new digital addition, or as some screens are so big, there are no stands suitable to support them on the floor, should there be a space for them in the first place. After all, you are hardly going to sit on a TV to watch a sofa, are you?
Now add in a fireplace, and your options could be reduced even further for everyone to ‘gather round’ for an evening’s viewing.
One property, which I have mentioned in passing before, has a massive screen that occupies an entire wall opposite the window (and sofa). Hubby and I have jokingly said that one night we will get a tub of pop corn and some soda, then sit on the garden wall of the property across the road to watch a ‘silent movie’ or the footie.

On the subject of hinges though, a friend has a large, but modest, sized TV in her lounge that is flush to the wall, but on a hinged bracket that she pulls out when she wants to watch TV downstairs. In each of her bedrooms, little and littler brother (minus the hinged brackets) are on the wall at the bottom of the bed with the remote easily accessible on the bedside cabinet.

By the way, I said hinged brackets.

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