I'm a Fan

Long time no see!  It's been a busy couple of weeks around here, and blogging fell by the wayside a bit.  However, taking photos did not, so we've got some neat things to show you.

My father has come and gone, and we had a terrific time with him here.  In addition to seeing some of the sights and enjoying the erratic spring weather, he also helped with some very important projects around the house.  I mentioned our project goals in my last post - we were able to meet some of these goals, and get partway on the rest.


Project #1: Master Bathroom Fan/Heater
This was designated as the primary goal for the trip with regards to home improvement.  I cannot even begin to describe how hard Nick and my father worked on this.  Part of that is because I do not have enough knowledge of electronics and plumbing to understand how many obstacles they had to overcome.

The original plan was to simply hook the new fan up to the duct and vent associated with our hallway bathroom fan.  Except that when they got up to the attic, they discovered that there was no duct, just a rolled up piece of flimsy paper acting as a tube.  And instead of venting to the outdoors, said tube vented to the attic.  This, as one might suspect, is not to code.  Shame on you, home inspector!  So they ended up having to create new venting out through the soffit.  They ended up having to cut a hole in the bathroom wall to get around a piece of wood blocking a wiring path, so now there is a bit of patching to do.  Guess I'd better pick a paint color soon!

There was a moment of mild panic when they thought the actual wiring in the wall had gone bad and would need replacing (thankfully it turned out to be an easily replaced blown circuit breaker).  All in all, there were a number of unanticipated difficulties that caused the project to take several more days than either my husband or my father had anticipated, and I gave up counting how many trips they took to Lowes and Home Depot.  Oh, and that does not include additional trips to our local smaller hardware store.  At one point my father and I caught Nick on the phone as he was in the parking lot of Lowe's just about to leave, and sent him back into the store for "just one more thing".  Thank heaven for cellphones.

Umm, Dad?  There's a hole in the ceiling.

Swanky!

However, with remarkable good humor (because after a certain point you really just have to laugh) and perseverance, they got the job done, and now we have an excellent fan/heater combo hooked up in our bathroom!  It even has a nifty timer setting on the fan so you can literally set it and forget it.  Otherwise one might forget to turn it off because it is so quiet.

Go team!  They make an awfully good team, I have to say.

And now, the video evidence:

The switch wasn't actually bad; it all works now!

 But wait, there's more!  In another post at another time, though...I've got gardening to do.