Garage Door Remote

Ever since we have been back at the house, we have not had the ability to open the garage door from our vehicle. This is due to the fact that our crappy property management didn't maintain control of whatever remote they gave to renters. The only way to open it was to click on the button mounted on the wall of the garage.

This wasn't too bad, since we don't park in the garage and rarely needed to get into the garage from the outside, but there were times where it would be convenient to close the door from the outside.

I had purchased a universal remote from Chamberlain (our opener's manufacturer) but just never got the programming done, because of the way our opener motor is installed in the bulkhead of our garage ceiling.

Well, my sister in law came over this weekend and this was one of the things on our list to accomplish. I had to cut a bit bigger hole in the bulkhead (without damaging the AC duct), to see if I could get access to the programming buttons that are on the back of the opener motor.

We figured out a way to plug a light in so we could see if the programming was working and after much fiddling, we finally got the opener to open the door using the remote. I was so excited I jumped from the ladder with glee.

I then installed this grate over the hole in the bulkhead to just tidy things up a bit. Hopefully we won't need that access again any time soon.

Three Small Projects

Missing board from front

I have had a few little tasks on the to do lists for a while that have been nagging at me but they really required more than one person to get knocked out. As part of a little deal with my SIL to do tasks one day at her house and one day at our house this weekend, I was able to checkmark these babies off the list.

First one was to add board back to our fence on the left side of the house that has been missing for some time. I had purchased the board ages ago but just hadn't had a chance to knock it out.

Due to the fact that the wood fence has a metal gate, the extra board is kind of suspended to the rest of the fence by two added pieces of 2x4. So we cut a 2x4 that I had in the garage so we could reattach two new pieces for anchorage to the fence. I realize that this isn't pressure treated wood, but these fixes are just to get by for a while. I really hope to replace both sections of fence on both sides of the house with a new fence of a completely different style (but that is way down the road for now).

Missing board area from back

New anchors attached

After we attached the new anchor pieces, we attached the new cedar dogeared board after cutting some length off it.

New board from back

New board from the front

The second fence project was to help help support and straighten up a portion that has been leaning for a while. Once again, this is just a temporary fix to keep the fence from coming down completely until we can get a more permanent fix. The issue is that the 4x4 is wobbling in the anchor, and short of digging up the entire cement anchor, this temp fix is the only solution in the short term.

Leaning fence before fix

Fence with support in place

So we attached a small piece of 2x4 to the fence and then cut a length of 2x4 for the support and hammered in a stake in the ground. I'll probably trim up a lot of the vegetation around the fence too in case it is putting pressure on it.

Last project of the day was to put in two hooks in the garage ceiling to hold our 20ft extension ladder. At some point, we'll probably put a couple more up there to hold our 16ft extension ladder as well.

Ladder installed in the ceiling

Felt good to knock out these small nagging tasks with help from my SIL. Sometimes it is the little ones that really bog you down.