DIY It

I consider myself a self sufficient person. If a project or task is within my grasp or if all I need to do is some light Googling I will do it. My Dad never kept me away from the tools and I used to be, sometimes still, the designated helper monkey and light holder.

From all the projects throughout the years I've learned by watching and doing. I learned how to change the oil in my very first car, an SUV, and got a laugh when I told my then boyfriend the oil would spew out like a shaken up soda bottle but he didn't listen and got partially drenched.

There are plenty of projects to do at our new house. We didn't purchase it with the intent to change everything but once you start improving and updated it is hard to stop. I've kept a running tally of things to change or replace since I first stepped into that house last July. We've made slow but steady progress. So far we, mostly husband, have ripped out the carpeting in two rooms, taken out three sets of old accordion closet doors, replaced a light fixture outside, cleaned out the shed and garage, dug a drainage ditch, removed the garage door and cut down a couple of trees.

The next project I was eyeing is the low hanging ceiling fan in the kitchen. Normally I like ceiling fans since they circulate the air and make it feel less hot so you aren't running the AC nonstop. But this fan was a hindrance. It made the ceiling feel lower and anyone taller than 6 foot something, my husband and Dad, couldn't walk under it without ducking. Not a good look. It also didn't do much when we tried it out. So I've been itching to replace it with a nice flush lighting fixture.

Killing two birds with one stone we found two light fixtures in a finish we both liked which were secretly on sale at Home Depot. The other fixture we wanted to replace was in what we call the "black room" since the concrete floor was painted black. This room is usually on the darker side but the dim lighting from the Tiffany style colored glass fixture didn't help. It also didn't go with the decor and vibe we were gravitating towards which is more minimalist. After our shopping excursion we took a moment to chill as our lights weren't going anywhere.

I was ready to replace the old fixtures with daylight fading and climbed on the ladder starting to take apart the fixture in the black room. It was just as dusty and gross as I imagined with the additional delight of some half dozen bug carcasses dangling from the end trapped in there for who knows how long. Gross. After I removed the wiring connections from the ceiling I presented these findings to my dozing husband. He agreed it was gross and ambled down the stairs to help.

Then came the ceiling fan. I had no idea how to uninstall this so I turned to Google. All you have to do is unscrew things one level at a time starting from the bottom. I was eventually assisted by the newly roused husband since he couldn't go back to dozing after that dead bug spectacle. We took off the blades and he yanked the fixture out of the ceiling since it was nailed in. A nice task for husbands. Eventually we got both of these fixtures installed and the difference in both rooms was instantly better. More light and head room in the kitchen and more light and less dead bug trap in the black room.

If you have some simple projects to do at home that don't involve plumbing or rewiring just go for it. Neither one of us has uninstalled a ceiling fan before but we did it anyway. It's a learning and renovating experience all in one. Don't be afraid to Google.