Around the House - Update

We had several minor projects around the house over the last month. The first and biggest was installing a ceiling fan in Jackson's room. We had to have an electrician come over and get us started because the wiring in the house was old and the ceiling light that has been there before wasn't in the right spot. All it took from us was $105 and some mud/spackle to fix up the spot. Times like that make us wish we knew an electrician who would come out and visit. :)

Once the electrician got the wiring in the right place for us, we were able to take it from there. Rach got the fan all assembled despite the truly terrible instructions. Thankfully when she done done connecting all the wires, she had something that actually resembled a fan.

From there Susie took the lead in getting the assembled product attached to the ceiling. She did a lot of hanging, connecting, and tightening. Then we held our breath when she let go, but nothing fell down.

Finally we were ready for the last test and turned it on. To our amazement everything worked exactly like it should, and now Jackson has a super cool, baseball ceiling fan.

The next addition was a new programmable thermostat that Rach got for Christmas. She had read that is was a first step towards being handy around the house, so she decided she could do it on her own, with a little help from her apprentice to hand her the tools.

The old thermostat looked downright ancient, and after seeing the wiring to the ceiling fan, Rach was more than a little nervous. It was a great relief when she removed it to find two easy-to-use and perfectly positioned wires.
From there it only took a few minutes to program the new thermostat and get it installed on the wall. We were saving money on our heating bills in less than half an hour.

The final project was a minor one. We hung a full length mirror, also a Christmas present, in Rachel's closet. The only full length mirror we had in the house was downstairs, which made it a pain to get dressed, run down and check your look, and then run back up to make any changes.

The only complication to this project was that we had to run out and buy some new drill bits to replace the one's we'd lost during the fan installation. Once we had those, the mirror was up in minutes, and Jackson was admiring his handsome face.