Owning a house can be a blessing and a curse. When things go wrong you can't just call the landlord and get it fixed, it's either pay or do it yourself. Being a cheap person, most of the time I choose to go it alone. Although there are a few things I don't mess with, like plumbing or cutting down huge pine trees.
When I do go it the DIY route I never really know how things are going to turn out. Sometimes the simplest projects turn out to be a real pain and sometimes things I think are going to be horrible turn out simple. Today I experienced the latter.
One of the first things I did when we moved in was install a ceiling fan in our bedroom. It really wasn't too difficult and it's been a great way to keep our bedroom a little cooler during these killer summers. A few months ago the pull cord mechanism on the ceiling fan light jammed and stopped working. Since then we have been spending a lot of time in our bedroom fumbling in the dark.
The biggest reason I was procrastinating fixing the light was simply a lack of confidence that I was going to be able to complete the project. I hate getting halfway through fixing something and then getting stuck. I've pulled apart the lawnmower numerous times only to get stuck and have to put it back still broken. Fortunately today was nothing like that.
It really only took me about 15 minutes to complete the ceiling fan repair. Once I figured out that I could detach the light fixture from the fan and do all the work on the floor it was a breeze. So in case you ever need to fix a light pull cord here is how easy it is. First step, turn off the power! No need to take the risk of electrocution. Next was the key step of unscrewing the light fixture and detaching the wiring harness to allow working on the ground and not with my hands above my head the whole time. 
After removing the old wire light switch that controlled the pull chain from the housing unit I simply unscrewed the wire nuts that were connecting it to the other wires and connected the new wire switch. The switch was around $3 at Lowe's so the cost of this project was really nice. With the wires connected it was a simple pop in and screw the light unit back onto the fan. I also picked up an anchor chain accessory so we would be able to easily know which chain was which and we had light again.
Even a simple project like this makes me feel good. Though the thought of these home projects feels daunting sometimes I do get a strong feeling of satisfaction from completing it. It's one of those things that makes me feel grown up.
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