It’s been a grueling couple of years trying to figure out what’s going on with the economy and real estate, finding land, financing, making building plans, securing subcontractors, and hopefully now completing our home. 

We’ve entered what appears to be the final month or so of construction on our new home and have been blessed with good advice, good help and good opportunities. Yes, there have been challenges and hurdles, but struggle makes the successes sweeter. 

As our main floor appears to have been finished by the crew, we were left to find and install ceiling fanlights for our three bedrooms. By sheer happenstance, I had been doing some birthday shopping at Wal-Mart where they had a decent inventory of light fans on clearance. I mentioned it to my wife and within a day we were back, picking out one for each room at an overall savings of a few hundred from what they would have been normal value. 

We hurried over to the new house with our fans and electrical tools and set to work installing them. 

Of the two of us, my wife is the more accomplished electrician and sat cross-legged on the floor, figuring out the wiring and hanging hardware assembly. I began making important decisions, such as which side of the fan paddles we would utilize. 

As it turns out, the models we purchased had a grey-wood option and a stained-brown wood option. Both had merit given the state of the rooms and accompanying flooring, however after considering the future wall colors, I made the most logical and wise decision possible. 

I asked my wife. 

She wanted nothing to do with the grey and loved the brown. So without any further ado, I bowed to her stylistic prowess and secured the paddles. I did make sure to tell her, however, that if I needed to change them at a later date, the indecision and blame would be squarely on her. I received a rather peculiar look for that comment. Go figure.

After the first fan was mounted, tested and approved, we moved on to the kids’ rooms and made short work of their ceiling fans. She worked ahead, mounting the base and wiring in the harness, and I came behind installing the paddles and light components to finish the assembly. 

There’s something about being able to get off the ladder and flip a switch that is very satisfying. Having electricity at all was very satisfying. 

With all the recent weather we’ve been having, there have been a number of blackouts and brownouts plaguing the power supply. Having previously owned a house that experienced yearly blackouts during the worst of the winter weather, we opted for one more sparky upgrade on the new domicile.

Our electrician, who did all of the primary work on the house, was absolutely great. He did a neat job, kept things clean and organized and labeled our fuses and switches like few others I’ve ever seen. Seeing his work and planning on eventually having a generator hookup, we scrounged and decided to have him put in a nice generator feed hookup in case of emergency. I still need to get our generator fixed, but when I get around to that part of the honey-do list, the house will be ready for it. 

The way out here, sometimes the path to progress is lit by a single light at a time. Other times, it’s simply ensuring the light has more fuel, should it ever waver. In either case, we certainly try to keep one eye on the light as we put one foot in front of the other.