Electric Kool Aid

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that we were having an electrician come to change our fuse box to circuit breakers. We also knew when we bought the place that it would be a good idea to install vent fans in the bathrooms. This was our initial to-do list for the electrician, but somewhere between the time we booked him and the day we actually reached the appointment, the list grew a little longer. But now that we've made all the changes, we definitely think it was money well spent. Here's what we did. (Or rather, here's what we had him do. No way am I ever getting up in our attic.)

Here's the fuse box before. As I mentioned in the first post, some of these fuses were 25 amps when they should have only been 15. Livin' on the edge!

This is the diagram inside the door of the fuse box that shows where the fuses correspond to in the house. I stared at it for a long time when I thought I blew a fuse with my blow dryer, and never did make any sense of it.

Now I don't need to! The new circuit breakers have labels directly next to them! Technological breakthrough!

Not the most riveting photo ever taken. This is one of the new vent fans in the bathroom.

And this is a blurry shot of the new timer switch that goes with it. The electrician we hired was the only one we talked to who suggested using a timer switch, and I was like "Duh, why didn't I think of that? Yes, I would like fans on timer switches!" Also, let me acknowledge that this wall is gross. I think there used to be wallpaper in this room and someone ripped it down and just left things grody. I plan on painting soon.

The rectangle on the left side of the door is where the light switch in this bathroom used to be. So you'd have to walk in the door and close it most of the way to reach the switch in the corner. The switch on the right is our spankin' new one, relocated to a more logical place.

This shot of the drape-hanging project is the only one I have of our old ceiling fan in the bedroom. The problem was that there was no overhead light in this room. We could have just bought a light kit for this ceiling fan, but we decided a new fan with a light would step up the esthetics.

And it does! I know a lot of designers hate ceiling fans in bedrooms, but we're really liking it on those in-between nights when you're not sure if you can turn the AC off or not. Our old condo was on such a noisy street that we never slept with our windows open, but with this guy we've been doing it a lot. Cricket sounds plus a cool breeze makes for a great night of sleep. (If you're interested, this is the fan. We bought it at the Fan Man in Burnsville, where the lady actually gave us a very informative lesson about ceiling fans. You know I love me a very informative lesson.)

Not pictured: We added a new outlet on one side of our bathroom vanity because it didn't have one. It looks like an outlet.

So that's the whole package. The electrician was here for about a day and a half, and we've actually had to call him back a few times because the vent fan in the master bath keeps tripping the GFCI. Apparently they've installed these fans all over the Twin Cities area and our house is an anomaly in having this problem. On his last visit here he siliconed around all the areas that might cause that, and so far so good. Yeah, that was a minor annoyance but everything is under warranty so it's no additional money out of our pockets. And this electrician is still riding a tide of goodwill in my book, because timer switches! I guess I'm easy to please.