Our New Ceiling Fan

Our New Ceiling Fan
Originally uploaded by Cindezio

Voila.

Nothing goes quite as expected, Part 1 (of MANY)

On December 14, Brian took a day off to use up some vacation time and decided to get some work done around the house. He discovered a burned-out light bulb in our bedroom fixture and decided to make a trip to Home Depot to replace it, along with getting a few other things. In an attempt to buy the correct replacement, he dismantled the fixture and unscrewed the bulb... Well, tried unscrewing the bulb, which pulled away from its metal thread cap. He then tried using needle nosed pliers to get the metal cap out of the socket... but not before switching off the circuit labeled "master bedroom" which - oops! - was actually the power for the entire house. So struggling in the dark, balanced on the edge of the bed, he grew increasingly frustrated when the damn cap would not come out. Picture lots of fumbling and angry cursing.

When I came home from work, he sheepishly told me that he ended up ripping down the entire fixture from the ceiling. That's fine, I thought... we planned on replacing it anyway. We had bedside lamps we could use in the meantime. No worries. The hole in ceiling with wires poking out wasn't a big deal.

Of course, we didn't have time to replace it until after Christmas. While Brian's parents were in town, his dad kindly installed a brace to support a ceiling fan, which ended up making the hole in the ceiling just a little bigger. They also picked out and bought a ceiling fan together at Lowes, which sat in a box on our floor until January 2.

After work last Wednesday, Brian spent some time assembling the fan and wiring the remote control sensor into it. Then came the fun part. The part where I stood on my tip toes on the wobbly edge of the bed with a 15 pound fan lifted over my head while Brian stood on the ladder and wired it up. Picture more fumbling and angry cursing, but we got it up there. We flipped the switch and the light came on, but not the fan. Shit.

We had to trouble shoot... I got our step stool from the kitchen, which provided a more solid surface, but still had to stand on my tip toes while holding the fan directly over my head. I held fan, Brian unscrewed fan from base, checked all connections between ceiling and sensor, between sensor and fan. Screwed fan back in, I let go. Tried switch, light still worked, fan did not.

I held fan, Brian unscrewed fan from base, removed potentially faulty remote sensor, I cursed, he screwed fan back in, I let go. Tried switch, light still worked, fan did not.

We decided it must be a problem with the motor. Started taking fan apart. Removed piece that connects light fixture to fan. Discovered wires aren't connected between fan and pull chain that turns on fan. Duh. Tried switch, light still worked, fan works too! But now there's no remote.

I held fan, Brian unscrewed fan from base, re-installed remote sensor, I cursed, he screwed fan back in, I let go. Everything works!

Except my spaghetti arms. It was quite an exercise in patience, teamwork, and yogic breathing.