I Just Want to Turn on a Light, Part II

Phase II of his crusade to save electricity began several weeks ago. (Possibly due to of my lack of support for Phase I?)  He thoughtfully attached a remote control for the lights downstairs to the wall at the top of the stairs.  He also started buying blue-tooth LED lightbulbs and installing them one at a time, but didn't share his plan with the rest of us.  So when one of them wasn't working for some reason, my 16 year old son, thinking the bulb was burned out and being proactive for the first time in his life, replaced it with a regular bulb from the closet.  I thought my husband was going to have a coronary when he found out that he'd thrown away a $54 light bulb.  My son, daring to say what I was only thinking, looked at him and said, "Who pays $54 for a light bulb?"

So now that I can control my lights in the basement with a switch like the rest of the world, a lot of my stress was alleviated, but only temporarily.  He eventually put one of his light bulbs in the living room without any negative impact until last week when he went on a business trip and I was home alone with the kids.  True to it's electronic nature something started going haywire with his remote control switch.  I'm sitting in the living room one evening visiting some friends and I tell the kids to take all their noise to the basement.  On their way down they find that if they hit the power button on the remote switch the family room lights turn on and the living room light turns off.  This leaves me with two options.  I can sit in the dark in the living room and visit in peace and quiet, or I can try to visit with the lights on amidst the cacophony that always accompanies my kids when they are together.  

The next morning my little girls were sleeping in the family room because the heat upstairs in their bedroom wasn't working.  This time when I got up at 6am and turned on the light in the living room, with the regular switch, the lights came on in the basement, waking them both up way too early and creating two little tired monsters that I had to put up with for the rest of the day.  This was the first day into his trip so we spent three days playing light switch roulette and holding our breath as we waited to to see which lights turned on... or off.   On the bright side - no pun intended - my life is never boring.