Restful sleep. It’s one of those things that came easily in earlier years, but now even the slightest things can wake me from a deep sleep.

I can remember when our family lived in California, where earthquakes are common.  I awoke one morning to my little brother recounting events from the night prior.

Apparently an earthquake occurred overnight, bringing everyone in the household to the waking world, except me.

But now the slightest noise can cause me to rouse. That includes a ceiling fan with a motor that produces an ever so slight humming noise combined with a random tick.

Additionally, the old fan’s propensity to cause light bulbs to flicker didn’t help the case for keeping it.

So, I bit the bullet, took a trip to the local hardware store and spent about 30 minutes looking over the selection.

As I pondered brands and options, I finally settled on a purchase.

The next day I got ready to begin the relatively easy process of taking down the old, noisy fan to make room for a new, quiet, remote controlled version.

While the installation of a ceiling fan is relatively straight forward, that process is compounded when the added peripheral of the remote control “receiver” is thrown into the mix. What used to entail three or four wires, now doubles.

To cut to the chase, there are two things to keep in mind when replacing a simple pull chain fan with one that is remote controlled.

First, if you have a dimmer switch on the wall controlling your current fan, buy a regular switch to replace it.

Remote control fans need a continuous power source.

Additionally, be prepared to cycle through all of the remote buttons and chain pulls to ensure you installed it correctly before calling for help.

I would like to issue a big “thank you” to my stepfather for this lesson and sorting out what I botched the day before.