I tried some of the very expensive dimmable cfl bulbs (I borrowed them from a fixture in another room). They still flickered, whch probably means that the remote receiver modulates too slowly (ie cheap defective design). It would also be prohibitively expensive (approx $160) to fully populate the four-socket fixtures on both fans with this problem. The ceiling fan is independent of the remote control receiver, which fits inline at the ceiling wiring connection. I'd buy another remote receiver in a heartbeat if I could find one with no dimmer on the lights. Unfortunately all of the receivers have this "feature" which makes them unusable with cfl bulbs. Very frustrating. I'm paying someone $100 to come out and remove the remote receivers this weekend. I can't reach them myself because they are on a 15 foot cathedral ceiling. Arrgh!

power -- switch -- wire to light power -- switch -- wire to other switch This is what he said he had doesn't mater what he said about the rest any electrician that knows what he is doing can easily make the 3-way work with these wires. Obviously your not an electrician joefixit. He does have the light and power in one box but there is also power in the other box. The only reason you need to use a 3 wire is to send the neutral to the other switch so it can send it to the light. Well he has a neutral at the switch with the light according to what he said above. So if you tie the neutral through to the light cap off the hot on that side and don't use it you now have the neutral you need at the light. Land the black wire coming from the light to the black screw on the switch that is the common for that switch. Now according to what he said there is a wire running between the switches, so there should be a black and white in that wire, those are the travelers you now have your neutral, travelers, and common over at the switch going to the light. On the other side you have the power and the wire to the other switch so now you cap off the neutral cause you don't need it now cause there is one already going to the light after you do what I said earlier, the black hot wire is your common and it goes to the black common screw on the switch now there will be two wires left, according to what he said they are going in between the two switches so the black and white that are left are your two travelers. If your so sure this is wrong tell me how, because there is now way possible to make this not work unless the wire he said that were there arnt actually there I'm just going off the info given

I'll be investigating all of these options today. The one that sounds like a definite possibility is the third option where the neutral for the lights is connected before my GFCI receptacle. After finding out that the GFCI was tripping when I'd turn the sconces on, I took the fuse out for that circuit. (I have a Federal Pacific Fuse Panel, by the way) I had to leave, and left the fuse out overnight. I went back the next day and realized that the front hallway light and the outside lights beside the front door weren't working. They are on the same circuit as the living room. But, when I put the fuse back in, they weren't affected by my tripping of the GFI. So, while I thought the living room outlet where I installed the GFI was the first device on the circuit, it's actually the front hall light or exterior lights. Perhaps the sconces are getting neutral from the front hall light? I did notice that inside the box for the first sconce, I had a set of wires coming DOWN inside the box... This was odd to me because I have no overhead light in the living room. For a little bit of reference, I uploaded the floor plans I made of the house. The fuse box is in the basement, located in the SW corner in the plans. The circuit we are talking about covers the Front Entry Lighting, Living Room Receptacles, Living Room Sconces, Dining Room Outlet, and Dining Room Overhead Light. Nick Here is a link that might be useful:

And I'd like to add one other thing to my overall question. So the entire knob and tube run is pristine. Very good condition, very nice Everywhere I can see it running (through part of the ceiling joist cavity in an open frame construction). I'm just going to leave it alone because I can't get new Romex up there. But our kitchen is attached to the backside of our foursquare house and as a result there is actually an extension off of the home that extends the kitchen out a little bit further. It was original and since it was original there's no insulation in the ceiling. The lighting fixture as well as the entire three-way switch loop is all completely in open uninsulated cavities which are compliant even according to the latest NEC. However we would like to be able to put insulation into the other section where there is just a hip roof above the ceiling. When the ceiling is up there will be no access which I know is a parameter in the code. I know that you cannot run knob and tube around insulation or have insulation over it even though in some states apparently there is a waiver. So I'd like to try to figure out a workaround again since I cannot rewire the connections to the fixture with romex what choice do I have? Is it possible to at minimum install conduit above the insulation with a new single neutral wire that connects to the knob and tube in two places? In other words just replace one section of the existing run so that it is protected from insulation that we would want to put up there? Optimally I would relocate the neutral and shorten its length, but cannot do that due to the restrictions of splicing in romex. There will be no other loads on the neutral because I will be re-wiring all of the others with new Romax from the basement. It's only this one stupid lighting load on this three-way switch. Thanks for your guidance!