We're off to a good start - finally

The day started slowly, which was fine. We had breakfast at Sabrina's, the new branch on Callowhill. Melanie had Huevos Rancheros and I had the Cardamom -Strawberry cakes - that is, we did what we always do; one of us gets a sweet breakfast, the other a savory, and this time we just traded plates every quarter way through the dish. Yum. Then it was off to save the economy.

Home Depot for ceiling fan, plug for the tub and a few other things.
Target for blow-up mattress, t-shirts and various things.
Storage Unit to pay the rent.
Staples for iron on t-shirt transfers.
Home again home again jiggity jig.

I bought the coolest ceiling fan for the kitchen! hee hee! Wait 'till you see it. I can't wait either. I have a feeling putting this thing in will be a saga. And I am determined to do it myself.
We pulled the Ikea lamp down. I feel very guilty about this because my dad spent so much time figuring out how to put it up there, but I really need a fan in that room. Now that it has really warmed up, there is no breeze in the kitchen and there is a big temperature difference between it and the bedroom where I do have a fan. The lamp will go down in the studio - Daddy, you can put it up next time you're here. :) After getting the lamp down I took a look at what was up there. I think that the old metal gas spigot for gas lighting was still in there. It had been cut so I took it out of the ceiling.
The nice Home Depot man informed us that if there had never been a fan in the ceiling we would need to put in a brace between the joists, otherwise the fan would be too heavy and just wiggle itself off the ceiling. (that's a scary thought). I bought the contraption which is a square metal rod with a long threaded pipe running through it, and two sort of things on the ends with spikes. The idea is that you unwind the rod so that the ends hit the joists and as you continue to unwind it the spikes sink into the joists and create a very strong brace for the fan to sit on. Sound straight forward right? Right. - not in my house. First I had to cut a wider hole into the ceiling. I had to wiggle the brace in and also be able to get my hand in. The ceiling is made of the same lathe and plaster construction as the first floor pocket door walls. The plaster came off easily - not the lathe. I did finally get the hole big enough, got the brace in and tried to straighten it out so that it was 90° between the joists. Nope. The brace was too long!
Called Home Depot, and after a while on hold, talked to a very nice person who informed me first, that I would have to move the joist over three inches. When I said sarcastically said that would be fine if I was Harry Potter, he laughed and told me that I would have to cut off the ends to shorten the rod.
An hour later, I had cut the metal rod, the threaded rod, removed the mechanism that holds the threaded rod into the square rod and was finally ready to get back up in the ceiling and get this thing braced up right. The only other hiccup was that the existing hole, is right next to a joist. I had to put the brace in backwards, and untwist it to get it to stick between the joists. This only took three tries. I finally got it in there, yanked on it pretty hard and it seems to be holding. Now to attach the metal box for all the wiring. This would have been easy if I would have had the right tool.
I don't know what this tool is called, but it is a long thingy with a square end, where I can stick the little silver circular thingy that will tighten nuts. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?
I'm going to Washington Hardware on 10th and Locust and I'm going to buy this thing there. It's small enough to stick in my purse so I won't have any problem lugging it around town.
Stay tuned as the saga continues tomorrow.