Working on the House and Forcing Myself to Learn
Labor Day in 2025. Normally I’d go for a run to start off
the day. I’m good about taking advantage of days where I’d normally work. Today
is a free day. But I’ve wasted enough time this year sitting around and
watching YouTube when I should’ve been fixing some eye sores in the house. I
started yesterday. I bought a ceiling fan at Lowes, then tried to install it. Next
I took off the old model, the ones that’s developed an irritating hum. Looked
up in the ceiling where the junction box should be. I’m still not sure what it
is. It’s a junction box of sorts, I guess. But it looks nothing like the ones
in the online tutorials. My house is old (1941) so there’s that. It’s not
uncommon to take off a wall plate and stare with confusion at what sits inside.
Even if the old piece that worked just fine with the old fan
is operational, the bracket for the fan doesn’t line up. The antique in the
ceiling needs to be replaced. It’s a little loose anyway. That makes me think
it might have been the problem with the low hum fan in the first place.
Especially if the hum is from a slight vibration and not the motor, we have the
culprit. Either way it has to go. I crawled up in the attic to get a better
look between the 2 x 4s. The attic crawl space over my bedroom isn’t even big
enough to be called a crawl space. Not to mention it’s covered with spray in
foam. I can’t get back in there. I decided right then I would call an
electrician. They might be able to do it from the bedroom by cutting a wider
hole in the ceiling and yanking out the old unit.
I’m in new territory here so I’ll wait.
Being in the attic for a brief time made me realize how
awful the condition of the hatch door is. It’s never been in great shape. I
don’t have one of those handy fold-down ladders and I generally avoid going up
there as much as possible. But the hatch is
another one of those projects, like the fan, that I’ve put off for too
many years. So here we are, Labor Day and I head off to Lowes to buy a lightweight
hatch and a patch kit for some drywall. I didn’t really know what to use.
Regular plywood is too heavy. The associate helped me find a ¼ inch thick
plywood and cut it to my specs. It nearly fit. I had to trim about a half an
inch off the sides in a half ass way. I used a jigsaw because I didn’t have a
circular saw. It looks as bad as you can imagine, but it fits.
I also stuck a piece of foam insulator to the top (attic
side). I’m not sure how well this will work yet. None of these projects are as
easy as they play out in your head. But I’ve learned to expect this and just go
with it. Not that my attitude is chill, far from it. But I do expect delays and
problems. Some of that is living in an old house and retrofitting here and
there. I won’t pretend I work on the house all the time either. I’m more of
yard guy, as I’ve detailed many times. Landscaping is a soothing balm for my soul where home repair, a festering sore. Painting might be the one
exception. Not because I love to paint, but there isn’t a lot that can go
wrong. Don’t like the color, buy new paint. Spill on the floor, clean it up.
Painting is the kind of house work I can do without help.
And speaking of paint, I slapped on 3 coats of primer to my
new wood hatch door after I stuck the insulation on. Even without doing the
project I really wanted, I still managed a successful day of projects. The
patch kit was for a hole in the ceiling near the hatch. I slapped on a patch
and covered it with compound. Again, we’ll see how it holds. I’m not sure why
it matters whether or not I got anything done. It’s Labor Day after all…who
cares if you sit down and watch TV or sleep in late? Maybe because home repair
stuff is always so tedious to me, I take every opportunity to brag about the
smallest wins. Well maybe humble brag at least. I’m not exactly showing my work
or telling you how expert the work was. Whenever I take on some new home
project I go through this unhealthy self-criticism about my lack of knowledge.
But the only way to get increase knowledge is to work on the house more often.
As I’ve stated however, I loathe it. I’d rather spend all
day cutting grass and digging holes in the yard than 1 hour trying to do any
type of house repair. But even mildly successful
work builds just enough confidence to try again.
Or maybe just wait till next year.
