It's Cold Outside... Let's Install Ceiling Fans?

January 2012

After the new year and a quick trip to San Francisco we buckled down to start a new marathon of projects. The first was to install some Christmas gifts from the family.  Josh asked his mother and I asked my parents for ceiling fans as our big gifts for the year.  We currently have four of the ugliest ceiling fans in man kind history.  These were the brass, oak with a insert of reeding, You know the fans I am talking about, they happen to have graced every home in the late 70's early 80's.  The only difference was you replaced yours, we have not.

For the family room we had two reasons to replace it, one it was ugly and not in keeping with the house.  Two, the room was very dark and has no overhead light, we figured this was a good opportunity to add an overhead light to the space.  I looked for weeks for ceiling fans that match the style of our house, finally I stumbled upon the Period Arts Fan Company.  Super cool, super vintage looking fans, that happen to be built right here in Oregon (bonus!).  We selected the School House Fan, in oil rub bronze with dark cherry blades.  

For the upstairs bedroom, we selected a little more modern/inustrial fan.  Since we have low ceilings upstairs we opted not have a light.  We also have pretty good lighting in the bedroom since there are can lights. We had to order a hugger, which allowed us to hang the fan directly to the ceiling and avoid a rod.  I am serious about the lack of head space, it was tight. We decided to stay with the same oil rub bronze and cherry finish upstairs so there was some consistency. 

While Josh and I have hung most of our fixtures to date, we felt a little nervous about the ceiling fans. These were super heavy, and we weren't entirely sure our wiring would even work with the new fans. We decided to call in an electrician for the work.   We also took the opportunity to add some additional lighting to the basement which was so dark it was almost horror story material.  I lucked out and got some used fixtures from a building remodel so we didn't have to buy any just wire them up!

The electrican was there most of the day and I was sure glad we decided to out source this, he and his partner were grunting and groaning installing these fans.  The living room fan proved extra special since there was no junction box. By the end of the day I had two working fans and 9 additional basement lights, yay! The bad news, it was January and about 40 degrees outside so they fans would just have to sit there looking pretty for a few more months. We really have to work on our timing.

Let There Be Light... And Bling

February 2011

After Christmas I started to become alarmed that we appeared to be starting a trend.  A trend of purchasing large items in big boxes and leaving them fully packed in our dining room.  Procrastination should probably be a new years resolution.  The first box was our dishwasher that spent three months in our dining room before we installed it.  Now, we had a very large box containing our dining room chandelier.  My parents gave it too us in early December as a Christmas present.  Late January marked over a month in our dining room and I decided it was time.
 

My parents purchased our whimsical chandelier from Pottery Barn.  The decision was tough, I looked at thousands before I gave into this one.  Most felt way too formal for our small little cottage, others felt to rustic. This one grew on me each time I look at it.  It was in no way historically accurate to our house, however, it provided the appropriate level of bling mixed with casual natural appeal. I unwrapped it and realized that all the crystals do not come assembled.  At first, I was a little frustrated I was looking at easily 200 crystals that had to be screwed on to every surface of the chandelier, but as I started going about it, I actually appreciated it.  We probably used half of what came with it, a girl can only take so much bling! 
 

 

Josh and I moved out the table, shut off the breaker and went about installing our first big light fixture in the house.  We took down the 70's flush mount that I like to call 'boob light' (you know what I am talking about... round glass dome with a shiny pointy decorative metal knob in the center).  After this was done, we measured how long we needed the chain and proceeded to remove the extra links.  What I mean by this is that Josh attempted to pry the chain open to remove the extra links only to discover that this was impossible. Pottery Barn your directions state "remove extra links until desired length is achieved" I am not actually sure who they thought could do this, maybe the hulk.  We pulled and pryed with multiple tools until we gave up and actually cut the links with our sawzall, take that!  

After that our next task was for one person to hold the extremely heavy chandelier while standing on a ladder, while the other person wired it together.  Mind you this was about 50lbs and there is no real place to hold it given its about 4' around and surrounded by pointy crystal covered branches. This was hard, way hard, our old wires are not secured to anything (no junction box) so they like to slip back into the ceiling if your not careful. Eventually, after about 30 minutes and some seriously sore arms we got it up.  Flip the breaker back on and.... LET THERE BE LIGHT.  This thing was seriously gorgeous when the light was on.  It throws great light around the whole room and the crystals almost turn into mini lights.  We were very proud and cooked a celebratory dinner to eat underneath.  Our dining room felt completely transformed.  Actually pretty painless considering it only look us about 2 hours.

Electrical: Important! But Unsexy

August 2010

 

During our home inspection it was brought to our attention we had a 1960's pushmatic electrical panel. They were called pushmatics because instead of switches for your circuits they were actual buttons you pushed to turn the circuit on or off.  These were not recommended since they tended to leed to electrical fires.  Wonderful... cough. After talking with some electricians at work, we found out it wasn't 'horrible' but when they got a surge of power they tended to not trip... making them: a fire hazard.  On top of this, after living in the house for almost three months we had started amassing a large list of electrical needs and figured it was worth it to bite the bullet. Also, for those who don't know, my Grandfather owned his own electrical business and I am sure somewhere in Virginia he had started developing a twitch, sensing my electrical deficiencies.

 

 

Josh called in an electrician he worked with and we went through the list: 

1. Replace panel

2. Add circuit for our new (still in box) dishwasher

3. Install exterior outlet on front porch(yay christmas lights)

4. Change electrical outlets on exterior to GFCI

5. Repair taped together electrical line to cabinet light

6. Install fancy new light in kitchen

7. Add another outlet to back bedroom

8. Correct anything that looked very scary

 

Randy came out and spent the whole day bringing our house up to some level of code.  He also fixed our doorbell for free, bonus.  It was our biggest expense to date on the house and we slept a lot better. 

Since electrical is necessary, but unfortunately not so sexy.  I bought the aforementioned fancy kitchen light and a new globe for the kitchen cabinet light. Apparently, fire safe still isn't quite enough for me.  But, when you find a light in the character of your house that happens to be the same lime green of your kitchen, it is meant to be (this was my line to Josh).

Let there be light! and no fires.