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