Add another homeowner post

_posts/2015-05-27-mostly-growned-up.md

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ layout: post
 title: "Look at me, Zoidberg! Home owner!"
 tags:
 - personal
+- homeowner
 ---
 
 Just before I head to the bedroom for the night, I walk to the door by the car

_posts/2015-05-29-youre-my-biggest-fan.md

@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: Meet my biggest fan
+tags:
+- personal
+- homeowner
+---
+
+In a previous post I mentioned that [I have become a home
+owner](/2015/05/27/mostly-growned-up.html), which dictates that I must now
+spend an innumerable number of hours fixing, tinkering and otherwise causing
+damage to the home I have purchased. The latest installment of "I bet I can do
+that" involved the installation of a 52" ceiling fan in my living room.
+
+
+> *[@agentdero](https://twitter.com/agentdero) all home projects require three Home Depot visits.*
+
+(via [@kristophera](https://twitter.com/kristophera/status/614880876179013632))
+
+After more than a week with temperatures reaching higher than 85F in the living
+room, I set out on Saturday to perform the job quickly in between other
+scheduled activities. With my wife joining me in the fan selection process, we
+made our first trip to Home Depot to select a reasonably priced fan.
+
+### Preparing the installation
+
+Climbing up my green ladder, I began to disassemble the ugly light fixture,
+with its single ugly light bulb. I had been lead to believe, by the fan's
+installation directions, that I would find a simple outlet box above the ugly
+light fixture onto which the fan would be straight-forward to install.
+
+If only!
+
+The ugly light ficture sitting on the painter's plastic below me, I did not
+discover an outlet box with a hot, neutral and ground wire but rather a nest of
+wires connected together, a [junction
+box](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junction_box) doubling as a light fixture!
+The box also had a circular shape, the diameter of which was simply too small
+to affix a mounting bracket to. Adding insult to injury the outlet box had been
+secured to the cross-beam (joist) on one side and rested on the drywall on the
+other. An insufficient support structure for a ceiling fan to say the least.
+
+**Damnit.**
+
+I hop in the car and head back to Home Depot (**trip number two**) to grab a spanning
+brace, which is meant to expand outward between two of the wooden joists in the
+ceiling, providing a secure cross-bar from which to install a *new* outlet box.
+The spanning brace I bought can be installed by inserting it
+through the hole in the ceiling and expanding it from below, making it so the
+poor schmoe who's installing the fan doesn't have to get into the attic.
+
+Initially I couldn't make this work because I couldn't unseat the old box to
+make a hole, so I scurried into the roof to figure out how to get the old
+outlet box out and place the new spanning brace.
+
+
+Once in the attic I discover that the outlet box isn't visibly secured to the
+outlet box from above, but instead there is a tab that sticks out from one side
+of the joist behind the box. As my luck would have it, the box had been
+**nailed** to the wooden joist from below and then covered with dry-wall. So I
+grab my handy-dandy knife and cut an even *bigger* hole in the ceiling.
+
+<center><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/19222135136" title="IMG_20150627_171518 by R. Tyler Croy, on Flickr"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/395/19222135136_90b4ee8fa4.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="IMG_20150627_171518"><br/><strong>A nice mess of wires in the attic</strong></a></center>
+
+
+I make notes of which wires connect where and how and finally got the old
+outlet box removed and the spanning brace installed, allowing me to escape from
+the insulation-filled hell that protects the house from the 90F heat outside.
+
+
+### Actually installing the fan
+
+A sufficiently ample hole in my ceiling, dry-wall dust coating both the plastic
+sheeting and my lungs, a spanning brace in place and a good night's rest since
+the previous day's adventure into the roof, I set out again to install a simple
+ceiling fan.
+
+First I had to install the new outlet box to support the fan; only a few bolts
+to tighten this quickly got me to the next step in the process. To make sure I
+didn't go too far before ensuring the circuit was functional, I rewired the
+junction from my notes, connected the old light bulb, flipped the breakers and
+the switch and thankfully started lighting the room instead of lighting a fire.
+
+With the fan's mounting bracket attached to the outlet box I quickly realized
+the coupling between the fan and the bracket would require tightening screws
+just about level with the ceiling. An impossible task with the minimally cut
+hole; pulling out my handy-dandy knife again, I made an even bigger hole.
+
+Finally able to secure the fan coupling to the mounting bracket, I finally had
+a fan hanging from the ceiling!
+
+<center><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/19252015861" title="IMG_20150628_120146 by R. Tyler Croy, on Flickr"><img src="https://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3785/19252015861_44c6d5aecd.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_20150628_120146"></a></center>
+
+
+I now had a fan and a big hole in the ceiling, meaning **trip number three** was
+made to Home Depot to pick up a dry-wall repair kit.
+
+Finishing off the rest of the light installation for the fan was very quick
+work and required barely any brain power, which was good because I was running
+on fumes at this point.
+
+What I had hoped would be a quick afternoon activity turned into a two-day pain
+in the ass, but at least I've got a big fan to keep things cooler now!
+
+
+<center><strong>My biggest fan</strong><br/><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agentdero/19060605780"
+title="Fully installed fan by R. Tyler Croy, on Flickr"><img
+src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3775/19060605780_0811c66ed0.jpg" width="500"
+height="375" alt="Fully installed fan"></a></center>
+
+