Well, It Hit The Fan

I thought today I would share with you the story of a little DIY fan project that should have taken 30 minutes tops, and ended up taking closer to 5 hours.  I want to be sure to share with you the good, the bad, and the ugly of all our projects.  Sit back and revel in the knowledge that Murphy’s Law can happen to all of us. 

 Last week our bedroom light and fan gave up on us.  The hubby was getting ready for work in the morning when the bulb went out.  He changed out the bulb to no avail and called to tell me that the light had officially retired.  Thinking we were in for another 30-40 minutes fan install we popped over to the Lowe's around the corner and purchase a 52" inch ceiling fan for the Master bedroom.  This one was large, white, came with a fancy remote, and was the right price so into the buggy it went to come home with us. 

Lowe's Fan

 Now to be fair when I say 5 hours this time includes time for the removal of the dinosaur that was hanging in the room, time to discover the problem, time to wait for back up in the form of a baby sitter because we knew this was going to take the both of us, time to correct the problem,  time to install the new fan, time to clean up the mess we made, and finally time to shower and change after covering ourselves in insulation. 

Curious now aren't you?  First we turned off the breaker and checked the fan and lights with a volt meter to be sure we were safe.  I checked and rechecked because if there is one thing I have a healthy respect for its electricity.  Down came the old fan piece by piece until finally we reached the ceiling medallion.  It was there that the issue revealed itself.  These fans are quite old and do not hang from an electrical box, they hang from a large hook usually screwed into a support above the joist with the electrical box above for the wiring.  This is the third one we have done in this house and the first one we have seen that hung sans the electrical box.  No box equals nothing to support our nice new fan.  Baffled and covered in insulations that fell from the gaping hole in the ceiling I realized this was not going to be the 30 minute install we were used to. 
 

I called to cancel afternoon plans with a friend and she graciously accepted my apology and offered to come and sit with the baby while we solved our DIY problem.  Well I'm no fool and I immediately took her up on her offer.  While she was on her way I went into the attic located the spot and slid away the attic floor that hovered over my problem.  Turns out the fan was supported by a hook as suspected, but the support was only anchored on one side and the electrical box was resting precariously on the drywall above our bed. One quick tug on the support and it was free.  I disconnected the wires to the last piece of the fan hanging on and got a good look at the problem.  

 
I ran to the Naylor's, a locally owned hardware store, to get a support for the electrical box.  I like to support the local stores in addition to the big box stores.  The customer service is excellent when I have detailed questions and it is often easier to pop in and out for one item.   Although I did buy a darling Halloween Black Cat blow up for the yard, it was a deal and I was powerless against the kryptonite sale sign on my way to the register.  Bracket and decoration in hand I headed back to the house to get started on the electrical box.  We gathered up the drill, drill bits, screw driver, 1 ¼ inch drywall screws, pry bar and pliers.  To be honest not all of these things came up the stairs at one time, and Mr. On A Mission descended several times to fetch the tools we needed.  Thanks honey.

I punched the hole out of the electrical box and bent it back and forth to remove it.  I then attached it to the bracket using the nut and screw provided.  I placed the bracket to be sure it would line up with the existing hole in and ceiling.  Thank goodness it all lined up.

  Here's the tricky part.  These brackets are designed to be installed prior to the drywall going up; if you look closely you'll see the screws are on the underside of the bracket.  This needs to be pretty close to get the box low enough to support the fan.  This was a pretty tight fit in a dark corner of the attic so this operation was pretty daunting.  I decided to mark and pre-drill the holes and then the hubby would use his man power to screw the bracket in to place by hand.  I pre-drilled the holes at a slight down angle because the left side of the bracket was a pretty tight squeeze for the screw driver. 

 

 

 The hubby went back down and pulled the wire through the side of the box while I fished them through.  He then used a screw to secure the bracket that holds the wires so they wouldn't budge.  It all worked as planned and we were out of the attic in no time.  I'm glad this project came after a cold front came through and we didn't have to do this in a 150 degree attic mid-summer. 

 

 We were back in familiar territory and spent about an hour on the installation.  This model, as I mentioned, has a fancy remote and we had to wire the remote to the house wiring and the fan to the remote and get it all to it back inside the housing and out of site.  We didn't need a down rod so I cut the excess wire and stripped the ends to complete the wiring.  We had a little trouble with some cross threading while installing the housing at the ceiling, but at this point I gave up and figured it was up so high no one would notice.  I promised the good, bad, and the ugly, sometimes you have to make the hard calls and not sweat the small stuff.  In the end I am very pleased with the result.

 You know I thought the remote was kind of silly, but I must say I really like it.  It dims the lights to varying degrees, and operates and adjusts the fan's 3 speeds. It's really nice to keep by the bed and turn out the lights at the end of a long day.  So here are the pros and cons of my new fan.  Pro side: the price is reasonable, the remote is handy, the look is nice, and you don't have the look of exposed light bulbs.  Con side: the install can be moderately difficult if you are a first timer and not familiar with wiring, the wiring is pretty crammed so don't be afraid to get rough with it, and the max on the bulbs is 40 watts.  All in all we are very pleased with the end result, and I would install this in the last two rooms where the fans are on their last legs.  Man I hope they have boxes in place, but if not I am confident we can handle it.  Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come and see what we have going next.