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.