Cheap Easy Attic Fan and one other unrelated idea

[IrishAyes]

I've been told by several locals that the only reason they passed on my 100-yr-old house is because of the steep narrow stairs. The second floor 'hallway' looks more like a cattle chute. It took almost a year of searching to find a whole house attic fan narrow enough to fit in the ceiling there. I don't mind because all the rooms are 15' square except the master bath (old bedroom) which only spans 15x12.

Anyway! After 8 years of heavy use, the attic fan has spun its last at last and they don't make that size anymore. No one wants to fix the motor if indeed that could even be done.

So I scratched my hard head until I came up with an alternate solution. Remove the louvers in the ceiling, take out the fan entirely, and put the biggest strongest box fan up there that I can find. Place it on its back (with maybe a few widely spaced furring strips for support) so the air will be drawn up into the attic. Run an extension cord down to the nearest wall outlet, turn on the fan, and let 'er rip.

No problem because I live alone, guests never want to climb the stairs anyway, and there are no little kids to worry about. True, it won't look great but except for bath time I don't go upstairs too often anyway in the heat of summer. And when I do, that wonderful rush of upward air would make ugly looks forgivable anyway.

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This last tidbit doesn't speak to home improvement at all unless you decorate with antique or just old costume jewelry, and I can't claim credit for the idea; but here 'tis anyway. Refurbish old costume jewelry with nail polish!



These two ideas cross-posted in the DIY/HI group.

[Curmudgeoness]

1. I am glad that you found a solution

to your attic fan problem. Didn't you try different things last summer too? This sounds like a good idea. I have used box fans to really move air as well, and they do a great job.

[IrishAyes]

2. Somebody gave me a better idea, though. Apparently there's a good chance that the motor can be

swapped out with a different but compatible kind. I didn't know they could ever be interchanged. So I'll try that route first.

What did you think about redoing old costume jewelry with nail polish? I was intrigued.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Restoring old jewelry.....

I am not sure how I feel about that. If I liked the piece enough to want to use it, I am not sure I would want to put nail polish on it. I am sure that you could not get it off again if it didn't look right. But I don't have any old costume jewelry that I would want to wear, so it wasn't significant to me. Have you tried it on anything?

Regarding your fan, I suppose that you could replace the motor with one that would work with the fan. I did that with my exhaust fan over the stove when it died and they no longer sell the type that I had----and since there is a hole in the wall to the outside to fit this one, I wasn't wanting to get a different style.

[IrishAyes]

4. No, I haven't actually tried the fingernail polish method on old costume jewelry myself as yet.

But I should've specified I meant REAL JUNK that's no longer fit to wear unless you fix it up somehow. Or maybe you see something in a thrift shop or yard sale and like the shape but not necessarily the condition. I wouldn't dream of touching good old costume jewelry. Sometimes you can make an interesting wall display with it also.

Since I was a set decorator for awhile, I still like to do that sort of thing; one of my bedrooms is designed around a children's theme as a flimsy excuse to display my dolls and stuffed animals. Sometimes I deck the latter out in pretty wild jewelry and/or outfits. No telling what goes on upstairs when I'm away! One 4' tall multi-colored chenille rabbit wears a viking helmet with a leather shield and toy plastic sword. Etc. Miss Piggy outdresses them all - she's almost hidden under the jewelry and crown and wand, etc.