In September 2018, mom and I were out shopping around. I had been into work that Friday for a luncheon, and my co-worker Donna told me that Lowe’s was having a 50% off their clearance stock! I grabbed mom after lunch, and we set out.

I’m such a thrifty shopper… and I found a couple of great items that we needed for the house. A fireplace insert for $100, normally $400! (Still to be installed… now that we moved our wood shop into this room, who knows when that will be.) An electrical panel for $8. (Our panel in the garage had no cover, and for $8, I figured we would find out if this cover would fit. Still to be determined.)

Those were our finds for that day. We only shopped around the front of the store where they were displaying the clearance.

The next day was a Saturday, and I convinced Sam that we needed to go take another look at the clearance, so we loaded up. We needed to pick out some paint and molding (read my post on the Bedroom Painting and Molding here!) amongst other things as well.

When we got there, the sale was still on. We rummaged through the front items again with no luck, and headed inside for the paint.

In the garden section, they had a lot more clearance inventory! It was like the heavens opened up with shining lights down on this returned “junk”.

There, lying on a cart rack, was the molding we had picked out for our unfinished living space. Holy crap. For 25% of the retail cost?! No freaking way. We went to Lowe’s that day to buy molding… and there it was for dirt cheap. We snagged it.

There was a motivated employee there that was trying to move all this inventory. He was helping find everything that we needed, and giving us better deals than 50% off the clearance price.

Lesson: make sure you talk to one of these employees while picking out clearance stock. They will bargain with you and give you better deals!

One of the deals… you guessed it; were the ceiling fans. Hunter brand, with reversible blades detailing two different colors. Retail was $125, on sale for $50, 50% off that, $25, and the guy told us, “take them both, and they are $20 each. Sold.

We brought home our finds, and the fans sat in our house for a few months. I had already wired the room for the fans on a dual switch box, that also powered the can lights in the room, which were on a dimmer 3-way switch.

One Saturday in November, Sam was working on the bedroom molding, and I wanted the room completed, with the fan installation. It was an easy install, and the directions were simple to follow. Any DIYer can do this installation.

So, with everything wired up, it was time to try the fan. Uh oh. The fan wouldn’t turn on unless the room lights were on. I swore up and down that I had wired the power to the lights to the switch box. But I hadn’t. They were wired with the power running to the lights!!! Ugh. And I only came to this conclusion weeks after the initial install, after talking to my dad, people at work, and reaching out for help online. I even drew up the schematic I thought I had wired; which everyone confirmed was the right way to wire the fan. . . If that wiring had been correct.

Well, I ended up jumping power from an outlet that was near by to power this room’s fan, and now, everything works great! But oh, the frustration!

Now I have a 2nd one to install, and my plan is to make a video when I do. Hopefully we will get it installed this year!

With Love, Erika Nora