Back in May, when we rearranged a few things, we moved our only television to this wall in the living room.
The only problem was, that wall didn't have a cable hook-up. The plan was to move a cable line there and/or look into wireless cable. Here we are, 3 months later and, turns out, we don't miss watching television at all. We do have a Hulu and Netflix account, but we are both surprised at how okay we are without cable. This past weekend, we moved the television downstairs since we haven't used it in 3 months anyway and it feels like so many possibilities opened up. Before we were so concerned with how the room would be laid out so everyone could see the tv. ??? Seems so silly now.
Now we're contemplating putting the fireplace we've been pining for on this currently sad, sad, sad wall (I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to that upcoming project here)--which feels like it makes more sense. As always, we'll see where we end up. But the whole thing got me wondering, do you have cable in your home? How many televisions do you own? I must say, it feels strangely freeing to not have to look at that black box anymore.
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We have one TV, always have, rarely turn it on, no cable, ugly antenna, occasional movie or PBS.
Small, boxy and in a cabinet. I keep brainstorming placement because of the cabinet (too tall) and antenna sprouting up. It is so limiting in our house to always be arranging so that the TV can be seen, might consider moving it now.
I live alone, and I have not TV, but a get a lot of books... and enjoy every one of them! Your girls are gorgeous!
Thank you!
We have one 47" tv in our living room without cable. We have Netflix, Hulu and because we have Amazon Prime we also have their tv service. We don't miss/want cable at all. We also have an antenna that we use for watching basic tv live. I'm really into a lot of shows on ABC and FOX so i love watching them when they come on without the cost of cable.
About three years ago, we move the TV out of our "great room" and turned our furniture to face the kitchen. We haven't looked back! So much better for family time without TV noise in the background.
We also cancel cable for most of the year. But every football season, we have to sign back up to watch the games and play fantasy. It's a family activity, so I don't mind. But I HATE cable! Netflix and Hulu make it so easy not to have it. If only they would do NFL as well.
We have one TV in our condo and no cable. A year or so ago our association discontinued our cable plan and we never got one of our own. After a few months without it I missed the background noise, so I bought a digital antenna for $40. We get close to 30 channels for free (albeit there are a lot in Spanish and a handful of shopping networks) but we get the local news and lots of great PBS channels. I do look forward to the day when I have that extra space (in a house) for a TV room and a living room w/o a tv!
We have a TV. It has a size. I want to say 30-something but clearly it is not something I find terribly concerning. We don't have cable and haven't even hooked up our antenna to it in almost two years, but we do have an internet-connected xbox hooked up to it, and we use that to watch Netflix, listen to music, and rent movies. I don't think we'll ever be a no-TV family, but I'm fine being a family that doesn't live by the tv schedule and isn't forced to watched tons of ads all the time.
I guess I'm in the minority here but we cut cable for a little over a year and it drove me CRAZY! I had Hulu plus to stream through the XBOX and Netflix, but they just didn't deliver everything I wanted. I missed my DVR, I missed entire seasons of my favorite shows, I missed HGTV, I longed for Bravo, etc, etc. We now have Direct and I love it. I know it's an added expense but it's worth it to me, a TV lover! My husband says he could still do without it, yet he's the first one to walk in the living room and flip on ESPN, so I call bull! We have two TV's, one in the living room and one in our bedroom, and we are currently working on our theater room in the basement, should be completed any time now!
I think you gotta do what makes you happy! No shame in having tv and loving it. Heaven knows I'm not missing my shows, even if I am catching them on Hulu on my phone or computer whenever I can.
I don't have TV at all, but that was more by accident at first. I moved from student accommodation (with cable included) to my first apartment just when the switch to digital signals was made here, and I couldn't afford a box (over 100€) or a monthly cable bill. I found I didn't miss having TV, but I do have a TV to watch DVDs (which I actually usually watch in my study on my computer anyway). Streaming services aren't that great yet in Germany with neither Hulu nor Netflix at all, and only the German versions of some TV shows on Amazon Prime, so I don't use any (yet).
I do spend way too much time on the internet instead and let myself get distracted by it the way people do with TV otherwise. Not sure that is actually better in any way…
We have one TV downstairs for the occasional movie on Netflix/Hulu but honestly we don't use it at all during the day (with the kiddos) and we could totally do without it altogether. We've never had cable and definitely don't need it! So glad there are others who feel the same!
We have just one TV in our house. My husband wants to add a second one but I like the limitations that come with just one. We also don't have cable. We've always had Netflix and just recently added Hulu Plus for some variety.
I have 1 TV in my apartment with no cable but Netflix and Hulu. The only time it's an issue is basketball season really. Too many games on cable sports channels and not network. Honestly, a lot of the time it's background noise.
We have 3 - den, master bedroom and bonus room and can't do without them! As a matter of fact, we came home today to the cable being out, and we are not happy campers at the moment...and the cable company tried to tell me that the earliest appointment they had was Wednesday. After I told him they could credit my account for the days I wasn't going to have cable they miraculously were able to get me an appointment tomorrow morning.
In our townhouse, we switched what is "supposed" to be the living and dining room so we could put a big beautiful table in our dining room with lots of room to expand it for holidays. The "real" diniing room is so tiny, but now makes the sweetest lounge with a loveseat (leather Karl) and two retro chairs, our record player and my players. It is a sunny TV-less room, meaning we have no TV on the first floor where we entertain the most. We say all the time how we LOVE being away from TV in the places we eat and have company because then we can all focus on each other. So, so, so great :)
(And, best yet, everyone gets to notice how beautiful and chic the room is!)
In our 8 years of marriage, we've been a one tv, zero cable, zero Internet home. Yes, it's like 1995 at our house. Sometimes it would be nice to get food network, E!, espn, etc, but we still get your basic local channels like abc, CBS, NBC, etc. For those of you without cable or considering ditching it, check out your local library! We watch all current movies and tv shows this way. In my town (fairly large city), you can request your items online and they will call you when it's ready to be picked up. And it's free! No Hulu, no Netflix, or any other service to pay. Truly, our awesome library system has saved us thousands of dollars. And I am a serious tv watcher! As far as Internet goes, sometimes it would be nice to have it, but I can do 98% of my internetting through my iPhone. Hubby uses it at work. If I just need to sit down with a laptop then I consider it a treat and go work at Starbucks while enjoying a beverage.
P.S. saw your comment about FNL (best how EVER!!)...Texas forever!
We have one TV in the living room. (I'm against having a TV in the bedroom) We only have basic cable and Netflix. That is enough for us. We went without cable for three years before that. I loved not having it but my husband missed his games. Its nice to spend time doing other things besides wasting precious time on something so frivolous.
The hubby and I haven't had cable since we got married. Somehow Netflix, Hulu and our busy lives have kept us from getting it for the past 3 and a half years!
wow! we put our TV in the garage 10 years ago, and never regretted it! since then I got 1 silly cat, that was really more funny than a TV...thena a boyfriend, then a 2nd crazy cat...
then lots and lots of things to do, no time at all for TV, and great things to do in the house, with family, with the cats...internet is enough for me!
your fauxdenza looks great without TV! :-)
2 TVs, no cable. I guess we have a computer in our garage where I work out also that I stream from. We use XBMC.
I actually just cut the cable (sort of) last week. The bill was up to $160 for internet, dvr, HD and regular cable, no HBO or any extra packages. Absolutely ridiculous! I decided to cancel the cable portion, but found that the bill was still going to be around $60ish for just Internet. I ended up switching providers to get a monthly "deal" for the first 12 months. Now I have a plan that's internet/HBO/on demand for $39/month. It's been a week and I'm missing the DVR and Bravo, but I'm sure it'll wear off.
We don't have cable but have two TVs. One in the living room and one in the master. The one in the master has never been used :/ We don't watch a lot of TV and if I do, I watch netflix on my computer.
We have a projector in our office/media room and LOVE it. No cable, just a roku hdmi stick that came with the projector.
The projector is a little 3M guy, 100% portable with built in speakers and battery in case you want to have an outdoor movie night. Groupon came through for us - 150$ well spent!
Growing up, I lived in a house with a black and white tv (long after colour was common), no VCR, and no cable. Once I moved out (to go to university), I didn't have a tv and didn't miss it. Actually, I've never had cable! But, that doesn't mean we don't watch tv, of course. We have a tv in our rec/play/office room in our basement, and have a dvd player and netflix. And we can watch a lot of shows on the internet. So, I would say we're pretty average.
We have 2 TVs, but neither are in the living room on our main floor (we have a ranch). Our large TV is in our finished basement, and the second one (much smaller) is mounted in our kitchen.
We don't watch a ton of TV and would love to get rid of cable, but because of my husband's love of sports we haven't done so.
We have cable and three TVs. I would love to get rid of cable but my husband likes it for the sports, so I live with it. Our TVs are in our family room, basement in front of the elliptical and our bedroom (which we really never use).
We have two TVs, one in the main living room downstairs and one in the gameroom upstairs. My husband loves football, so I doubt we'll ever get rid of cable altogether. I would LOVE to not be bombarded with all of these commercials geared toward women that try to make us feel bad for aging/having "flaws" like normal human beings. We're not vampires. Anyway... :)
I am trying my HARDEST to keep the TV out of the bedrooms. My husband and I can both be TV junkies and I don't want our (future) children to have similar habits or rely on TV for entertainment. Our cable provider sent us an extra box (forgot the reason) last month, and my husband insisted that we should buy another TV and put in our bedroom so we can use it. I looked at him and asked why we should spend money on another TV just because they sent us something "free" and that "free" doesn't mean we have to keep it. He didn't have a good rebuttle so I guess I won that round lol.
Haha, nice. A few months ago, I was the one fighting for a TV in the bedroom. I just love cuddling up to watch a movie before bed. The thing is, I 99.9999% of the time fall asleep within the first 30 minutes of the movie and Chris is left to watch it alone. Glad we opted out of that one!
I love the fireplace idea & I'm jealous!! Wish we had one.
We have one tv (that I won at the work Christmas party last year), and only have cable because it is paid for by our HOA.
That's the way to do it!
We have 2. One in our upstairs living room and one downstairs (split level with 2 living rooms). We do have cable, but only because the bundle to get the internet speed we wanted was cheaper with cable. How bizarre, I know. We just moved into this house and went from having a tv in our bedroom (rarely used) to not having one. I don't miss it. But I do like flipping on HGTV after my daughter has gone to bed. We don't have Netflix connected on this tv yet either, so if there's nothing I want to watch, I turn it off. It's not a bad thing. :)
We've never had cable but had a TV that we used on the analog signal. Once the signal here (in Canada) went digital, and everything thereafter widescreen, we took our TV to the electronics recycling depot. We have Netflix, a desktop iMac that we use for watching movies, and an iPad so we really don't miss television. I certainly don't miss the commercials. The few times my 5 year old has watched TV recently, he comes to me and quotes commercials or asks "Why is that lady in her underwear?" (again about a commercial). O_o! It's freeing to say goodbye to it.
(first time commenter - love your blog!)
We actually cut the cable cord a few years ago and watch TV though our Roku player - mostly Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime and PBS - we love the savings and we're just not big TV watching people and I'm totally into binge watching now!
We LOVE marathoning series after a long day. We watched Friday Night Lights in a month (all of the seasons!) during our flooring project to unwind at night.
I live alone, so TV is like a companion (it's not as sad as it sounds!) but ultimately, I love watching the news, the Today Show, 60 minutes, the nightly news - so I could never completely get rid of TV.
Awwww, that is so sweet, Emily.
Nope, no cable, no TV. We don't miss it at all. It's been at least 5 years. My kids read instead.
Yep. Still have TVs - Sports and having people over to watch said sports!
Cable is way overrated. We just have netflix and will get hulu plus again when shows are new again.
I can't wait to see what you do with a fireplace. I love all your inspiration!
We've been cable free for 2 1/2 years and don't miss it. In fact, when I was at a hotel and had the option to watch cable, I actually just pulled out my netflix because the commercials were bothering me.
We have the TV not the wall, but it's not in the center focal point of the room. Our fireplace is the focal point. When we watch a movie and need more seating (since the TV is on the wall behind our couch) we project a movie onto a curtain. It's really great and makes TV/movie time more of an event.
What a fun, idea! We've toyed with the idea of doing a projector downstairs.
Can't wait to see what you guys come up with :) One question................ when in the heck are you going to finish those baseboards??!!
Haha, Right!? After Chris finished all of the flooring at the end of March, I promised him a good, healthy break from large projects. So, he took the summer off from major house projects (if you've ever done baseboards--they are a LARGE project!) and promises to have them done by our annual halloween party. So, September is it!! Wooot!!!
We have a tv in our living room, family room and one small one in our bedroom. We watch a lot of tv but we also work out, play outside with the dog, run a small side business out of our home and find that we can balance all the fun things we do but also watch TV. We have saved gift cards and looked for deals to buy the tvs and a sound bar so we saved a lot of money there and we make sure to cancel HBO, showtime or sports packages when our favorite shows/sports are on any more to save money. Also we can call usually every three to six months and they will lower your bill with just a simple ask to. Right now it works for us but who knows what will happen when we are busy with a family!
There is a season for everything, that's for sure. We have loved watching Food Network around Thanksgiving in the past, so we'll see if we survive that season!
We haven't had cable in over a year and we don't miss i
Hit send to soon :(
we don't miss it at all! We have netflix and with streaming shows from hulu you really don't need it! It saves us so much money! we do have a tv in our main area because our basement isn't carpeted or furnished yet. eventually we just want to have it downstairs though and none upstairs!
Can't wait to see how you do your fireplace!
We have two TVs. One in our living room, and one in the office upstairs. We use our living room one everyday. We have cable with lots of extra packages and Netflix. Having no kids, we have lots of spare time to just lounge on the couch and watch out favourite shows. My husband also loveslovesloves sports -- and not local ones either. He wants to look into getting American satellite since we live in Canada and most of the sporting events aren't broadcast here normally.
we cut cable almost two years ago and have no regrets! My husband does miss some sport though...football is no problem but his beloved cardinals only play on fox sports:( one tv
We have one TV in the family room for Netflix - no others and no cable. We haven't had cable for years now. It wasn't a very tough transition for us because I never believed in having TVs in bedrooms, so my daugther was not used to being dependent on it playing in the background all the time. $60/month is $60/month! :)
I noticed someone else replied they keep cable for sorts events. To be clear, my husband has never missed a game. It just takes learning what channels the game will be on and how to access them live feed. We also have bunny ears antenna (costs $20 flat fee, no monthly) to get local channels so many games come through on there along with local news or if you just wanted to flip the tv on when company comes over. He watches college football, NFL, and NBA. Occasionally golf and we watched the world cup. Definitely not a reason to keep cable!
We had ditched cable in favor of Hulu/Netflix/etc for about a year and it was working great until my dire-hard all-sports husband needed (yes, that was the term he used) to watch NCAA basketball which was only on TNT and TruTV - two channels we couldn't watch without cable of some sort. We never had a problem with any of the other sports - MLB, NFL, even golf like you said. Unfortunately, when we went back to cable, the company scrambled our upstairs TV signal, so now we can only have TV in the guest room if we pay for an additional box.
Every month when the cable bill comes in I give my husband this "why did you mess this great thing up for us" look lol!
Hahaha. I count my blessings daily we're not sports-watchers.
Yes! This is awesome.
About 2 years ago we were cutting expenses and decided that Direct TV is just a total waste of money. We were paying about $120 a month. We bought a $500 home theatre computer, remotes, etc. and eliminated that contract. We had to pay about $20 for each month left on our contract but we still cut even at the end of the first 6 months. Now we are just "making money". The best part is with the use of all sorts of websites we have never once missed a show and have access to literally anything we want to watch anytime. Kids want to watch some movie? done. You just remembered some weird made for tv thing you saw 10 years ago but would like to see it again? done. The only downside is sometimes it is hard to find specific sports events but that is not worth $1200 a year for us.
We also got rid of all bedroom tvs. We don't watch nearly as much tv and the tv is never on just browsing. When we sit down, we know what we are going to watch. No commercials either. We still pay for netfix because there are times I just want to have the ease of watching something on there and it is easier for kids/friends to navigate. We have separate users set up so if kids are over we don't have to worry about what they watch on there. We will never go back and I have no idea why anyone is paying for cable anymore, unless I guess you can't get high speed internet.
This sounds awesome! I'd love to do something like that but my husband really wants his WWE & NFL, so cable we will have as long as we can afford it. =)
We have one TV (a 36 inch, not huge but not tiny either) in our family room and it gets used sporadically. We do have cable and the only reason is that we do enjoy watching sports and netflix and other options just doesn't address that yet. Every month when the cable bill comes in, I do seriously consider making a change as its a lot of wasted $$.
We don't have a TV in our bedroom as I did that once before I started to watch TV at all hours and my sleep was impacted.
My husband & I are currently living with family & saving for our own house but we would like to have cable for the same reason. I could easily do without it, since I grew up without it, however, my husband is very fond of WWE & NFL.
So we haven't had cable TV since we got married almost 9 years ago and were paying off 6 figures of debt. Even when we were successful two years later, the only thing we added back was internet, which allows us to stream Hulu/Netflix/Crackle etc. I think I am a much happier person for it, because I am not bombarded with the news networks which often sensationalize and have nothing positive to say. The other thing I love is that my sons don't really know what 'commercials' are.
We have been cable free for over a year. I haven't missed it at all. Ok, maybe I miss the local news, but not even enough to get the necessary antennae for it. The weirdest thing is not seeing commercials anymore... so I don't have the slightest clue when people are talking about some new crazy/weird/funny commercial. We have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime and that's more than enough for our entertainment needs.
We have three TVs... living room, family room, and bedroom. We just finished our basement, creating the family room. My goal was for that to be the main TV area. I'm hoping that we will eventually have a TV-less living room, but at the moment, we still use it to stream music through an Apple TV. Some day..
We haven't had cable in about 10 years and we don't miss it one bit! It's nice knowing that you aren't a slave to your TV (why are so many terrible, terrible shows totally addicting?!) and also saving that little bit of money each month. We moved into a new home just about 2 years ago and still haven't even set up internet (gasp, I know!). We have only one TV, in our living room, and are hall-of-famers when it comes to Netflix. Recently, we set up an HD antenna, which is small and unobtrusive, so we receive the basic networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) for free. It's nice to be able to check in with Brian Williams for the nightly news and to watch the award shows -- Emmys tonight!
We only have one TV and no cable. I only use Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix. That's when I watch at all. I find days go by without turning it on or using only the Pandora option for music. Lately, I find I'd rather read.
my husband and I love Tv so we still have a family room centered around the big black box, but we haven't had cable in 3 years and we love it. we just use our hulu and Netflix accounts.
When moving into our current rental, we chose to go without cable due to cost, and furniture placement in our small home. We use Netflix, Hulu, have the Chromecast, and stream things online. My mother allows us to use her cable account for things like the ESPN app or ABCFamily so that we don't miss out on things we wouldn't be able to stream for free (she loves her cable though, hence why she still has it). For the most part, we are repeat watchers with TV and movies and this works best for us for now.
I have two TVs but only one in my home, the other is just collecting dust in my garage. I don't have cable, I only use it to watch Netflix. I don't miss cable at all! I think it's better to be able to choose what you're going to watch than to passively absorb whatever the TV throws at you.
We have 1 t.v and I rarely watch anything in the summer time. We usually have cartoons on as background noise and at night my husband watches Hulu through the Roku box. We could easily get rid of cable and not miss it.
I can't wait to see your fireplace, the only house I've ever lived in with a fireplace was in Coeur d'Alene, ID; I miss it. It made winter so cozy, especially around the holidays.
We have a large TV and it is mounted over our mantel in our only living area. Pretty visible and in your face, but we don't have a den or an alternate place to put it (nor space for some kind of cabinet with doors to hide it.)
However, we haven't had cable for 3 years and don't miss it. With Netflix streaming and Hulu, you don't need it. Get a Chromecast - they are only $35 and work great. You can even stream shows in HD from Youtube!
I can't wait to see this wall transform! We love life without cable. It is Ryan's dream upon dream to upgrade our little 26 incher for a 50 inch. It makes ZERO sense to me. We don't have cable. And honestly, it doesn't bother me, or the girls, one bit that we have a relatively small tv (compared to everyone else it seems). I think it is brilliant to have a living room without a tv mounted and plastered on the wall. I know a family that has a 60 inch mounted above their fireplace and it LOOKS RIDICULOUS!
Call me old school, but I can see us always having one modest size tv, without cable, located in a media/family room.
We've had the same 42" since we got married. It was one of our first purchases! Chris has a 60" pinned for the media room downstairs...but we'll see! Seems excessive for no cable. Hahaha
I'm not sure a 60' is "needed" but I understand the desire to have a large screen TV even without cable. If you watch shows via Hulu or Netflix & if you watch movies. I love watching movies on our TV (I think it's a 52")!
Can't wait to see what you do with the space! We have three televisions: one in our living room, one in our bedroom (which is used for about a half hour of Jimmy Fallon each night, and an occasional movie all snuggled up), and a very small one in our spare room where we use it for yoga dvds.
I keep telling myself if we have a TV in front of the treadmill, I might get on it more. Now that our television is moved downstairs--that might actually happen!!