Fan-tastic

If you share a room with someone, you know that finding a temperature that makes you both happy can be a real challenge. My husband is always too hot. He hates covers and always thinks it's too warm in our room, no matter what. I like to be under the covers and don't need the A/C on full blast all the time. I like it cool, but I also like to snuggle under the comforter sometimes too.

Anyway, we decided that what our room really needed was a ceiling fan. We had one in our previous house, and have been talking about getting one in our bedroom ever since we moved into this house last year. Well, we finally bought one at Home Depot over Labor Day.

Now, neither of us is particularly gifted with tools and things like that. Fortunately for us, my dad is very handy and lives nearby. So, he volunteered to come over one afternoon and install the fan for us. We already had an overhead light in the room, so there was already a place for the fan and all that stuff. Plus, he's installed several ceiling fans in his day, so we were fairly confident that this wouldn't take too long.

Cut to four hours later, the fan is haging by the wires from the ceiling, my dad is sweating profusely, it's getting darker and darker (since the fan is attached to the overhead light), and the fan won't come on. It's all hooked up, it just won't come on.

Dad: The hell with this.
Me: I'm sorry.
Dad:I'll come back tomorrow and try again. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, but if we can't figure it out tomorrow, take this back.

Well, the next day we figured a few things out. Somehow, I managed to purchase a fan with a remote control without even realizing it. When we unpacked the box, I was surprised to find it in there, and we had some problems with it. My dad spent another two and a half hours working with it, and when he left at the end of that second day, I was the proud owner of a new fan with lights and a working remote control.

A couple of days later, my husband I are asleep in bed, and the fan lights come on. They are on a dimmer, so they sort of gradually rose, as if we were beginning a play and the lights were coming up.

We were so sleepy and out of it that it took a minute to realize what had happened. "Why are the lights on?" he said. "Uh... I don't know", I replied. "Maybe we have a ghost," was his solution. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Since then, this has happened a few times. Occasionally, I'll wake up and the fan has decided to turn itself off, or I'll come home and the light will be on, when I know I didn't leave it on. Sometimes it's just an early wake up call. I mentioned this to my dad, who expressed no interest in returning to investigate, so it's just going to be one of those things that we live with.

All this to say, that while I love my new fan, I don't like the little Hampton Bay fan pull that hangs down. So, I am exploring some other options. I've recently discovered Betty Baumann, and I am loving her hand-painted fan pulls and switchplates. I think some of these would fit quite nicely in my blue and white bedroom. In fact, I may have to get two--we do have a fan downstairs too, I wouldn't want to leave him out.

I'll be sure to let you know what I decide. For now, I'll just cross my fingers that the light stays off tonight.