When Mrs. and I moved into our house the ceiling fans in our two bedrooms looked like this:
They reminded us of some mythical multi-headed beast (like let's say the Monongahela Monster) and needless to say we decided to replace them. This project did not take priority over other work we were doing when we first moved in, but we figured it would be easy to do when we got around to it. It was two ceiling fans, how hard could it be? Famous last words . . .
April 2010 – We finally ordered two ceiling fans after almost two years of talking about it.
April 2010 (one week later) – Fan one arrived. We ordered two fans. After several e-mails back and forth, we learned the shipment order was messed up and they had to ship the second fan.
May 2010 (a few weeks later) – Fan two arrived. Mrs. took off the afternoon to wait for UPS (her arch-enemy), and as she waited in our family room listening for the doorbell or a knock on the door, she looked out the window and noticed the UPS truck driving away! She ran down the street chasing down the truck in her slippers – hey, we’d waited long enough for these fans. Luckily she was able to chase the truck down and we now had two fans ready to be installed.
June 2010 – I’m not the most handy person in the world (I’m also not in the top 100), so I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to install these fans myself. We debated hiring an electrician, but kept putting it off, and finally my dad (who is handy) said he would come and install the fans with my assistance (meaning I would stand off to the side and hand him the screwdriver when needed).
July 2010 – After putting off the installation of the new fans for three months my dad drove up on a Saturday and we figured we could finally check the fans off our to-do list. Our first indication that things wouldn’t go quite so smoothly was when my dad looked at the installation instructions and uttered “I’ve never seen a fan like this before.” Well, we managed to take down one of the old fans, but finally threw in the towel and decided that we would have to hire a professional.
July 2010 – August 2010 – With wires hanging out of the ceiling in our guest bedroom and no working overhead light or fan in the room, I called three different electricians to get estimates for the fan installation. First electrician never returned my message. Second one quoted me a price, but when I called back a few days later to hire him, his wife said he was busy with other jobs and we’d have to call back another time (not sure what that meant). Third electrician agreed to come out and give us an estimate and, if we agreed, said he would install the fans that day.
August 2010 – At the end of the month the electrician finally arrived. Mrs. and I both took the day off work. I ran to the grocery store to get some lunch while they installed the fans, but when I got back Mrs. had some bad news: The second fan was dented and unusable. So one new fan was up, but we were going to have to replace the broken one.
August 2010 (later that day) – Mrs. called and attempted to exchange the fan but returning something 4 ½ months after you purchase it is usually is a no-go, and sure enough we were given the Heisman and had to eat the $286. Yes, I typed that correctly. Lesson: When ordering expensive items, take the entire thing out of the box and inspect it for damages as soon as you receive it and not months later.
September 2010 – Ordered a new (cheaper) fan. The fan was shipped UPS and we arrived home one day to find that UPS required a signature and wouldn’t leave the fan at our house. We went online to the UPS website and scheduled to pick the fan up at the UPS office.
September 2010 (the next day) – Went online to verify that the fan was being held at UPS before we drove down only to discover that the fan has been shipped back to the sender. I called UPS and they apologized for their mistake, but of course this didn’t bring back our fan. Mrs. had to call the fan store and have them ship the new fan again.
September 2010 – The new fan finally arrived and not risking another UPS error Mrs. worked from home to await its arrival. UPS gave us a 10:30-2 window. It arrived about 6 o'clock. I called the electrician to schedule a date for him to come out again.
September 2010 – The day before the electrician is scheduled to come out he called me at 7pm to say there was a scheduling mistake and he can’t make it after all. As I had scheduled to take the day off work I was not happy. We rescheduled for two weeks later.
October 2010 – Mrs. took the day off work to wait for the electrician. He called me in the morning to say he was near our place and looking for parking. I called Mrs. from work to say he would be there shortly. Twenty minutes later Mrs. e-mailed to say that the electrician still wasn’t there. Shortly after that I got a call from the electrician's office lady to tell me that the electrician couldn’t find parking and came back to the office (our street was closed due to road work – something we didn’t know prior to that morning). What?!!! No, he didn’t call me; he just left and went back to the office. Mrs. and I live in the city and he could have parked on numerous streets around our house. After being told we’d have to reschedule and the next available time was two weeks later, I “calmly” told the office lady that this was unacceptable. She had the electrician call me and he apologized and said he would come out early on Monday, but that 8am was the earliest he could come.
October 2010 – On Monday my phone rang at 6:40am but as I was still in bed I didn’t answer. No message was left. At 7:02 our doorbell rang. I looked out the bedroom window to see the electrician’s truck parked in front of our house. What?!!! I ran down but told him we weren’t expecting him for another hour (you know, because that’s what he told us) and that he’d have to come back in 20 minutes. So Mrs. and I rushed to get showered and dressed. The good news was the fan went up that day and we could finally put an end to the six month debacle of replacing two ceiling fans. Was it all worth it? . . . . uhhh . . . . let’s just say we’re glad it’s done . . . we hope. Since you’re on the edge of your seats (assuming you’ve made it this far) here’s what the new fans look like:
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