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When we built the Eagle Mountain house in 2003, we chose to put fans in most of the less formal main living areas for comfort. Each of the seven bedrooms had a fan, as did the family room and “the canyon.” (This was a three story high area adjacent to the family room that had balconies from the bedrooms and the playroom overlooking it.) The office had four more.
For the family room, the canyon, and the master bedroom, we splurged on expensive, special-order fans from a lighting store. For the other spaces we simply scoured Home Depot and Lowe's and online sources. We found some great matches for the kids' themed bedrooms and very utilitarian fans for the office.
Before we moved in, the canyon fan had failed and had to be replaced. Over the course of our five years in the home, the only fans we had trouble with were the three, expensive “high-quality” fans. Oh, and Samson's fan wouldn't change speed after he swung from the chain and jammed it. Which I don't particularly blame on a manufacturing defect.
We learned our lesson. This time around we are going to get all the fans and lighting we can from online retailers and local home improvement stores. Sometimes you can even find a Lowes Coupon or two online. From experience we know we'll save a bundle and the quality will be at least as good as the more expensive models.
Alison Moore Smith is a 61-year-old entrepreneur who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 40 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons. She is the author of The 7 Success Habits of Homeschoolers.
I looked at your fan link. They actually have a lot of very nice looking fans. Especially the one pictured on this post. It’s modern and clean, but not severe like some newer style ones.
Good luck on the contest.
Hi, congratulations for the marvelous work you’ve done on this site. It has lots of useful and interesting information.
Great new site. I need all the tips I can get, since we are building, too. How many houses have you built?
I always thought the expensive fans are better. Good to know.
So what’s your cut if I buy online using one of your links?
Thank you for the input and kind words.
Loodon, technically this is our third home-building project (and fourth home, total), but I need to qualify that.
Our second home was a “semi-custom” home in Boca Raton, Florida, meaning that we choose the model (from the developer’s limited selection), added a few thing (like a cabana bath) from a list of options, then chose colors, fixtures, carpet, upgrades, etc.
Our third home was a one-of-a-kind custom from the ground up. This new home is as well. This kind of project is, obviously, much more involved than a home in a neighborhood of near clones, built by the same company.
Peter, it depends on whether or not the company that offers the products/services we choose to use in our home offers an affiliate program. Some do, some don’t. And for those that do it is entirely based on the company policies.
I imagine that we won’t have any subcontractors or laborers who will have any kind of program in place—most won’t even have a web site to link to—so we’ll just give our review and contact information. We also do not have affiliate relationships with Lowe’s or Home Depot. But we’ve found some good products at their stores, so mention them by name as a resource for those who have access to them.
On the other hand, when we refer, say, a book that we really like, we will link to it through Amazon. We buy all our books (and many other things) through their Amazon Prime program. (We buy a lot of books—which is why we have the large library in the home!) We’ve had great service from them over the years and recommend them. When we do, we get a base referral rate of 4% on “qualified” sales.
The really good thing about affiliate programs is that they don’t increase the costs for consumers—and often offer some great sales and specials.
Here’s our experience with ceiling fans;
1. buy online for best prices; some amazing differences compared to electrical supply, home improvement or other stores. high quality fans can be had for discount store prices and “discount store quality” fan prices
2.buy quality (see below)
3.make sure your installer knows what he/she is doing when hanging the fan. you don’t want a fan crashing down from 2 storeys up
4.if replacing or adding a fan, save the cost of installing a wall switch by using a wireless remote switch. works just as well (and can work wihout getting out of bed or off the sofa)
on quality; we bought Casablanca fans for the last 2 houses, replacing some discount store brand fans in the last house. Our Casablanca’s have run now for 8 years, almost continually in a few rooms with very high ceilings, without any problems. Best feature, no sound at all – nada! the fans we replaced would get off balance, wobble, squeak, etc. which is very disturbing in a bedroom or when you are watching TV or a movie. We paid about the same price for these Casablanca fans online as we would have paid for other fans at Lowe’s or Home Depot.
Great ideas and info. Thanks for commenting!