Fanning the flames

When it comes to finding a good looking, modern but not spaceship-like fan with a light kit that is not four figures, the search is real and the search is long.

Our house was fully “renovated” in 2007.  I’m pretty sure the owners intended to sell it after the renovation but instead the housing bubble burst so they kept it as a rental property.  The former owners are both local realtors and did seem to care about quality in their renovation but unfortunately their style and my style aren’t quite the same.  So while the Hunter ceiling fans in every major room in the house all work well and may be to some people’s liking, they just had to go. (And away then went, to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.)  However as much as I would have loved to just put light fixtures up in their place, the heat in Phoenix doesn’t make that a practical solution.  So I’ve been building a Pinterest board of fans that I didn’t hate and biding my time.

We tackled the living room first where there are two of these bronze and wood beauties (you can see the original listing photos of the space here). The main goal of the fans in this space is to be unobtrusive.  I just needed something with a light kit and I wanted it to blend away.  Here’s a side by side of the new with the old for contrast.

Enter the Merwry from Home Depot. It fit all the criteria and at only $124 was something that didn’t cause too much pain when we needed two.

JT installed them with minimal help from me (I’ve had bronchitis and a horrible, can’t seem to recover from cold, it’s hit me harder this year than any other time I can remember in the recent past and I was pretty much worthless for a month) and the improvement was immediate.  They’re quieter to operate and don’t have those stupid cords to hang down and clink around.  They each have a remote control which I labeled “A” and “B” on the back and we can dim each fan light individually and change the speeds.

Since I had the camera out, I took a few shots around the living room.  JT and I made and painted two large canvases that we’re going to hang on that large expanse of white wall.  They’ve been in the garage waiting for a while as we get some other items sorted out like the picture lights and a new sofa. (Not to worry, the daybeds are going upstairs to our office. More changes, the only thing constant in life.)  You might be able to spot a Shenanigan lump back in his favorite corner, he lives back there and seems to like the kind of enclosed, sheltered space as his own little club house.

We just celebrated one year in our new house and while we still have tons of projects to go, our main living space has come a long way.

From this …

To this …

I should have cropped out the boob light back in the kitchen.  Still more projects to come!

Thank you to everyone for your kind words on Sophie.  Between her passing, the bronchitis, some heavy stress and deadlines at work and other general crap, the last few months have passed by with not much blog activity.  Now we’re into March, Phoenix is orange blossom scented and my office hired a new person to lessen my burden so I’m going to rededicate myself to both our digital and analog homes.  I hope to see you around.  Cheers – CT