Oh man, I have had Olympic Fever like cray-zeeee this past week. I absolutely LOVE love love watching Women’s Gymnastics! I’ve also been enjoying swimming as well. Fun Allison fact: I joined the swim team my senior year of high school. Because I was a senior they had to put me on Varsity. Oh man I sucked. Hahaha! I had never done swim team in my life – not even as a kid! It sure was fun though.
In addition to watching the Olympics, vacationing, and all around enjoying the kids home from school this summer, we’ve also been sweating it up like fat pigs!
We already discovered we are incompetent home owners and had too many air filters in the a/c unit. Now we’ve done yet another project on our quest for cold air.
If I have’t mentioned it like twenty billion times, I live in Austin, Texas. And if you are remotely familier with Texas you’ll know it’s freaking HOT here. And we’re having a mild summer this year! Last year I didn’t leave the air conditioning for 3 solid months. 😉
Ben and I have been making a few small updates to the upstairs of the house because of the heat (heat rises so it’s hotter upstairs).
If you guessed “installing ceiling fans” then come on down! We just had to get the air circulating in the bedrooms so ceiling fans are a must.
Obviously a big fancy chandelier or light fixture would be ah-mazing, but in Texas? Not an option. It’s just too damn hot here. Boo.
We ended up going with the Hunter 52″ Studio Series white Ceiling Fan from amazon. We bought 3; one for each kids’ room and the third for Ben’s office.
We chose the Hunter Studio Series for a few reasons. I wanted white fans so they blended into the ceiling. I prefer white ceiling fans in bedrooms and then fancier pretty ones in living spaces. Totally a personal preference though.
I also wanted one with 3 or 4 separate lights and frosted light covers as opposed to the traditional “boob light”. Again, personal preference. Oh, and cost: since we needed 3 fans, we went with a basic but good quality 3-speed fan that cost only $115.38 each.
I was ready to just buy one off the shelf at the hardware store, but my husband is the Consumer Reports nazi (is it un-PC to say he’s a “nazi”? I’m guessing so if I have to ask…) So anyway, Ben’s really into Consumer Reports and doing tons of research (I cringe at the word!).
Well, for whatever reason (okay, for these reasons: it’s quiet and has a good motor) we went with Hunter brand. In fact, the past 3 homes we’ve bought fans for we’ve only bought Hunter. (It’s safe to say we are partial to Hunter brand, and NO, I’m not getting paid to say that.)
So anyway, we bought 3 Hunter fans and we’ve had them for a month or so. They are so quiet I don’t hear them at all! Installation was a breeze (haha, get it? a breeze… I kill myself sometimes, I swear) and we had all three up and running in about an hour each.
Like I said, nothing designer-worthy or anything; I’m sure Genevieve Gorder would be taking them down seconds after stepping into the room; but they get the job done. And for the cost, they are incredibly solid and good quality.
Ben’s office also got a new fan but based on the condition of his office I am hesitant to share this little gem of a photo with you.
Ah, hell, here ya go:
Is this real life? Unfortunately, yes, this mess is my real life. Thank goodness I don’t share an office with him anymore. At least I can close the door to that eyesore whenever I walk by.
So anyway, what I just said in no less than 550 words I could have said in 7:
We installed ceiling fans in three rooms.
And the rooms are bearable to go in again. Three cheers for cool air.
Here’s the link again if you just have to have one. Or three. Hunter 52″ Studio Series white Ceiling Fan from Amazon.
Oh, and before I totally forget, if you are wanting a ceiling fan installation tutorial, google it. 😉 Or, do what we did – read the very well written, easy to follow instructions that come with the ceiling fan. There’s something to say about instructions: They work.
So I would love to hear your tricks for balancing ceiling fans!! I thought I understood, but I have a troublesome fan in Cabe’s room!
We live in San Antonio, so I know what you are saying when you say those fans are essential. We have one in each bedroom, living room and family room. I also have a small rotating fan on the floor in the family room. It is almost impossible to breathe without fans on. Glad it has been a pretty mild summer this year. I’ve managed to go outside during daylight hours this year!! We just have to make it through August, September & maybe part of August and we will be home free.
I am flabbergasted that you used the word “:nazi” in your post. You might as well used the other “n” word. Junk like this does not belong in any blog.
Are you kidding me? We worry too much about being PC and there is absolutely NO comparison between Nazi and the other word. Must be rough to be constantly offended by everything.
I live in Austin as well or surface of the sun, with out ceiling fans we would d.i.e. or have the highest electric bill ever. We have one in every room running on at least medium all the time to circulate air. We have the Hunter brand too. ;-).
oh I love fans, we scored a nice one at target a few years back on clearance for $5, seriously great. Probably not as nice as yours, but I love it.
Great post! I used to live in Texas so I fully understand. We live in Colorado and I have ceiling fans in almost every room and they run 24/7 for 356 days a year. I just like moving air, I guess!
And lighten up Jeanne! This is her blog and she can post anything she damn well wants to. 🙂
First of all, I really enjoy your blog and I think you are brave to embrace the much-maligned ceiling fan in your design plan; so many people give it a hard time, but it is simply necessary in some climates. Second of all, since you asked, I do not think your use of the term “nazi” to describe your husband’s overly-passionate following of Consumer reports is at all in poor taste. And “politically correct” is usually in the eye of the reader, frankly, unless the word in question is universally offensive no matter the context. An example of this would be “the other n word”. There is absolutely no time that the use of that word, unless in the context of a history lesson, is appropriate, and comparing your lighthearted opinion of your husband’s product research skills to a word that maligns an entire race of people is absurd. If you’d like an even better source than me, here’s what Merriam Webster has to say about the word: “one who is likened to a German Nazi : a harshly domineering, dictatorial, or intolerant person”. Not only could your husband’s rigid adherence to the mandates of Consumer Reports fall squarely within this definition, so too could be the opinion that you have committed some atrocity by using it. And besides, Jerry Seinfeld made it OK for all of us to use it.
I LOVE ceiling fans and they are so maligned on these house blogs. Of course, I am from Louisiana, so there you go. Actually, they are very good in the winter also, to spread all the warm air around. Especially in houses with high ceilings. One of my spring/ fall chores is to clean the blades and do that reverse switch.
The first electrical project I did on my very own was hanging a ceiling fan. The house was old and the wiring was all black. I had my hot wire-cold wire tool but still, I was terrified. I hung the fan in my daughter’s room and waited about 2 weeks, until I was home alone and flipped the switch. It worked!!! I felt like I had built the first space ship to Jupiter or something!
Personally, I like the boob light ceiling fan, the other seems so busy to me. All white might take care of the busyness.
I think your fans are lovely and I happy to know they were well researched.
Where’s the “Like” button? Well said Karin K!!!
Oh my gosh, ceiling fans are a MUST here in Texas!! And as for PC isn’t it so hard, these days to know what when and where we can say things!? I was named the “check out nazi” at my old job. I never really thought at the time about how offensive it may have been. Now that I have Alie I’ve learned I have to watch what I say. Case in point: when the roofers where here repairing the roof, Alie kept calling them “dude” HAHAHAHAH! It was so funny but seemed so totally inappropriate for a 4 yr old to keep calling people “dude” What else is kinda silly, when I lived outside of Texas people get all bent out of shape about being called “babe, baby, darlin, sweetie, honey…” silliness! In Texas we call everyone darlin’ don’t we.
Ceiling fans are absolutely a must here in OK. We finally caught a break and it’s only supposed to be 105 today instead of the 115 it was all last week! We need new fans in all the rooms and I’ve been trying to find ways I can fix my girls’ up to go with their decor.
I find it funny how people feel that free speech only applies to things they say. I don’t find what you said offensive at all.
My husband loves ceiling fans, I’m not a fan of how they look, but I can keep a few in the house for him. Plus I use keeping the fans as leverage to get other design pieces that I want 😉
So, your husband reads Consumer Reports then perpetrates mass genocide? Hilarious. You are such a fantastic writer! Oh wait, most of your weekly content is from “parties”, so you don’t have to shift your massive self over to a keyboard anyways.
What a marvelous post! This is why you have ads spilling out of every corner of your blog. Actually, since we have decided not to be “politically correct” (if that’s what you call showing normal human decency and respectfully treating the murder of millions of people), I’ll call your blog what it is. An abortion.
We live in Phoenix, so ceiling fans are a must! We actually have 2 in our bedroom! And they stay on 24/7. I wish I could put up a gorgeous light fixture, but I prefer not to sweat like a pig while I sleep 🙂
So, we installed 7 ceiling fans in our home when we bought it. We were going for inexpensive since we needed so many. I had to check the brand on the ones I like the best when you said Hunter was the best. YEP, it is! I even asked my husband if we could swap out the cheaper one we got for our bedroom (Hampton Bay) for another one like our living room (Hunter). He said he wouldn’t do it. Bummer… But at least now, I know that we want to always get Hunter!
I agree with you. We live in AZ and it’s just too HOT to not have ceiling fans in our home! And, I really like all white ones for bedrooms too. 🙂
It blows my mind how MEAN some people are out there. I don’t know how you deal with it. Kuddos to you for that. I mean, seriously just down right mean. Makes me wonder who their parents were/are to teach such hate and meaness.
On to my original question…..were all the ceilings prewired? I have 3 rooms that need fans badly (we are in the midwest, but it has been HOT this summer) and none of them are prewired.
Just wondering……I *know* that i need to hire someone to do it, but I def need to wait until fall since that person would most likely die in our attic when installing.
I have been thinking about ceiling fans lately. I thought it was so hard to install that I never even looked it up. Seeing this inspires me to start looking at them again. Thanks! And seriously, fall can’t come fast enough. This heat sucks!
Lighten up people. Nazi is a tem people use often. It doesn’t have to be a slam at the Jewish people of WWII unless you want it to be. Did you make sure to write to the producers of Seinfeld in such adament anger over the character “Soup Nazi”. Its a term that is used to describe someone that is over the top passionate about something- to the point where it makes them angry and/or act irrationally. Like I guess we could call some of your readers “Politically Correctness Nazis”. And btw, there should be no reason that you would EVER put blogging before your family. You are right, you only have so long before they are off to college, or married and out of the house. A mother’s quality time with their child is so important for many different reasons… more important than showing someone how to sew a damn curtain. Stupid asses.
On a lighter note… we cannot do without ceiling fans, but I am in Fla. I finally broke down and even put a floor fan in my daughters room, because her room gets so hot, and her celing fan wasnt cutting it, and she wasn’t sleeping well.
*High Five* Emily!!!!
Well said! People need to get over themselves. I feel like we’ve turned into a society where you can’t say anything anymore without offending someone! Geesh!
BTW, my comments were directed at Emily W. 🙂
Our quest for cool air – portable air conditioners 🙂