Hank's Room Gets a New Blue Fan and Light Upgrade
After stalling out on my project list last year, I'm feeling good about the momentum I've got going finally. While it's cold outside, I'm knocking out the easier inside projects that just need to get off the list so after sharing Abbey's new fancy fandelier, next up is replacing the ceiling fan in Hank's sporty blue room.
His existing fan was kind of unique and wasn't the worst, but I've always struggled with the spotlight nature of the light. They have to strategically be pointed at various places in the room to light it up, but create hot spots of light and dark shadows in other places. This is a problem when trying to read in bed with the overhead light on. If the light was pointed at his bed, it's nearly blinding, so it has to be pointed elsewhere, making it not bright enough in other places. I think this kind of light works better in a smaller space where it can glow up more of the room. See what I mean?
Installing the New Fan
When shopping around, I wanted a more modern looking fan, and something that would shine more uniform and downward throughout the room. Our ceilings are only 8' on the second floor unfortunately, so all fixtures need to be fairly low profile. Unlike ditching the primary function of the fan in Abbey's room, Hank needs a full-on fan like we do for sleeping. So I thought this dark blue fan from Hunter looked like a cool option, and not something you see everywhere. Plus it claimed more velocity than the average fan... (spoiler alert, this thing MOVES AIR.)
After running into the ceiling bracket issue in Abbey's room, I wasn't sure what I was going to find in Hank's. So after I flipped the breaker, I started taking the old fan down and ZAP! I got a shock when disconnecting the wires. Not painful, but one that felt more like I accidentally hit the invisible fence dog collar - it hit my finger and ran up my arm a bit.
I immediately stopped what I was doing and started worrying we had live wires not tied to the main breaker of the room. Called my dad for a consult and he came by with his electrical tools - and the advice to buy an electrical test kit of my own. He confirmed there was no power in the lines, so there must have been something still hanging on in the wires/fixture. He also told me if I would have hit a live one, I probably would have "been blown off my ladder." Isn't that fun!?! Oh the joys of being a DIYer...good news is, the ceiling bracket was larger than Abbey's and good to go! And yes, for those of you worrying about me, I did buy myself an electrical test kit for my next fan project.
Hank's New Blue Ceiling Fan
Hunter fans have really good, helpful instruction manuals. Some of the better installation instructions I've seen. They actually feel like they were written by human beings who actually try to follow the instructions before they sell the fan - so once I got everything down, putting the new one up wasn't too hard. I struggled for a long time trying to get ONE SCREW lined up, but after a lot of sweating and cussing, I finally got it. Results are totally worth the struggle!
As I said, this fan MOVES AIR. Like majorly. It's a little too much for me personally, and I think louder than other fans we have because of it, but Hank LOVES IT.
His fan has a remote that gives him 3 speed options and he is always running it on full blast. I am slightly worried his room is going to take off like a helicopter. But the light is so much better and more even. And, this is the first modern fan I've installed that suggests you install right the bracket on top of the old switch so that was super nice! Needed to buy new longer screws to make it work, but I loved the forethought here.
Another day, another original house fixture gone! Feeling good!
Need a fan fix? Here's what we used:
Electrical Tester Kit Home Depot
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