quote:

Originally posted by BigJnSA:
I'd go to the dollar store or Walmart and get some nightlights that have the photo cell built in. You could at least find your way to the closest light source easily and cheaply.

This

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
My house was built in 1989 and I had to pay $1100 to have lights installed in a single room. There was a switch which only worked the top half of an outlet. One single lamp to light a 16x16 room!!! It would have been $50 in parts to add a ceiling box and switch when the house was build.

I know this won’t make you feel any better, but it would have been about $2 in parts, plus the fixture.

I had the opposite problem . When I moved into my house I discovered that the living room had a switch near the door but no overhead light fixture . Well , maybe the switch controls a wall outlet . Nope . I took the plate off and checked for voltage . It was hot .That made it more confusing but I moved on to more pressing things . A few weeks later I was in the attic above the living room dropping a cablevision tap . Barely visible in the ceiling insulation was an octagon box with a Romex wire going in . Long story short , somebody ran the circuit for the overhead light but never finished the job . I cut a hole in the ceiling and reset the box . Installed a ceiling fan with light .

Buy a Kasa smart plug. Very easy to setup and you can also set them up to come on or off at anytime.

Just keep the free app on the first page of your phone and you can turn the light on or off from your phone.


https://www.amazon.com/s?k=kas...=nb_sb_ss_ts-a-p_1_4

I was walking through Costco and saw what appeared to be a flourecent light on an endcap. Except that it was a plug in, motion activated, LED version.

Bought that puppy, put it in the garage and plugged it into the garage door opener outlet. I walk in and it lights up. Yureka! I realized that I could stick the same thing in my 100 year old house rather than knock out the lath and plaster. Good stuff! No more light switches needed.

Of course, they had sold out. But I bought something similar online.

As some have already stated. The code requirement for a switched outlet or overhead light at every entrance to a room is far, far older than the 80's. Something doesn't ad up.

Yooper, your issue is likely a five minute fix, depending on how things are wired, but it sounds like they hooked up the switch leg for the fan to the feed for the outlets, a common problem, and usually a very easy fix.

Thanks, Skins! My Landlord has offered to install a ceiling fan in my master bedroom later this year so we will address the issue then.