A Much Needed Improvement

Hopefully this is something that most home owners will understand, but honestly, I'm kind of embarrassed about it. Over the long weekend, we made a particular home improvement that was certainly way overdue. I'm embarrassed because for the last 9 years, we'd been looking at a ceiling fan in our living room that looked just like this:



Holy cow, it's just so hideous. I guess it was just one of those things that just blended into the background of our lives because we were so used to looking at it. Most of the time we didn't even notice it at all. Every once in a while we'd talk about needing to change it, but it wasn't until the beginning of this year that we started to seriously shop for a replacement. After a few months of off and on searching, we finally found the fan we wanted on Friday. On Sunday evening, we spent several hours installing the new fixture, which wouldn't have taken so ridiculously long if it weren't for the vaulted ceiling and the fact that we were doing it at night by the light of a single lamp and a flashlight. In addition, after putting the motor and casing onto the down rod we discovered that the special outlet box that held the old fan into place on the ceiling was installed incorrectly, so Chad had to unscrew it from the 2 X 4 in the ceiling, straighten it out and then screw it back in before the fan would hang straight!

Of course, my dear husband did 90% of the work, and I'm so very thankful he is capable of such feats of strength and diligence, because I would have certainly hired someone to do the job if it were left up to me! When he was all finished, not only did he still have a smile on his face, but our fan also functioned properly and looked wonderful:



I can't believe it took us so many years to get this minor renovation completed, but I guess baby steps are better than no steps at all. Sometimes I think it would be nice to take an entire month off of work just to complete all the home improvement projects on our list all at once. Then we could get rid of the 3 other hideous ceiling fans in our house as well! Unfortunately, the one pictured above is still in our bedroom!!! ACK!