A source of satisfaction...

A source of satisfaction...  A good part of yesterday I spent replacing two old ceiling fans in our house.  The house contained four ceiling fans all together, all different.  Like many things in the house when we bought it, we suspect the former owner (who owns a residential construction company) took leftovers from various jobs for his home.  There's nothing wrong, really, with the four fans all being different – but not one of them was of a style that we liked.  So we determined to replace them, and decided to get four identical ones in a style we liked.

So where's the satisfaction in that?  It's this: we have the great good fortune to possess the financial wherewithal, in our retirement, to be able get the best quality ceiling fan we can find.  I did the research, and found a make and model that had great reviews online, was documented as being made with top-notch materials and parts, and matched our taste in its style.  The price was roughly double what the old fans likely cost.

The quality difference was driven home to me as I disassembled the old ceiling fans – perfectly serviceable, but visibly not as well made, presumably not as durable, and observably noisier and less stable (they vibrated and had some motor whine, especially at high fan speeds).  The new ceiling fans are made of heavier materials, have rubber noise and vibration dampening throughout, and were perfectly balanced without any adjustment at all.  The fit and finish are perfect.  Even at the highest speed setting, there's no vibration and no motor noise with the new fans – just the quiet rush of the air being moved.

It's such a little thing, really ... but I have lived most of my life in financial circumstances that did not allow me to make such choices.  Virtually every purchase we ever made was compromised by the price we could afford to pay, and usually it was quality that was compromised.  It's very satisfying to me that now we need not make any such compromise for most of the ordinary things we need, because we can afford to buy the quality we really want.  There's another factor at work here, too: the more experience one has, the more one appreciates fine quality...