What goes up must come down.. but what about when the belt breaks down?

DIY Garage Door Opener - Genie 2024 Belt Drive Replacement with a Genie 4024 8 foot expansion kit

So.. everything says "Discontinued." You go to order a part for this 8 yr old consumer grade Genie garage door opener, and noooobody sells it anymore. I took a gander, ordered a Genie 4024 (that's two thousand improvements later so it's 1000 times better!) belt drive repair kit and found, indeed, it's incompatible.

But not so fast! The belt looks identical! Just a little short by about 6 inches, because while they're both 7ft door belts, they have different carriage/bullet/end pieces:

Ok this encouraged (and intrigued) me. I found and ordered an 8 ft belt drive expansion kit for a Genie 4024 with the intention of cannibalizing just the belt, and I called local Genie certified folks to both run my plan by them and also see if they could sell some length of only the belt by the foot/yard: No, they don't sell it by the foot, but they didn't see why the idea wouldn't work. I also called Genie customer support, and they said about the same thing.

Well, my belt kit arrived, and I went to work:

See how the old belt has some deep groove wear patterns.

Rather than measuring (and potentially lousing up the job), I lined up the old and the new side-by-side, tying the matched ends with a twist-tie, and moved my way up the belts, anchoring them in place about every few feet with my foot to keep the slightly stretched and rigid old belt in alignment with the fresh and flexible new one over distance: I wanted it to match notch for notch for greatest chance of success.

The hardest part of this job turned out to be trimming the extra length from the new belt, because it is some hardy, steel-reenforced rubber. I tried clippers (wire snips), sheers, and, ultimately, the hacksaw did it:

See how snugly the new belt fits into the Genie 2024 bullet/carriage insert?

Tightening the belt with the belt tightener.. what a breeze. I hope I didn't over-tighten.

I had smartly labeled the otherwise very ambiguous control wire sheaths at disassembly a week prior so plugging in the sensors and button would be easier. 

By the way, throughout this, I had referenced a similar but different video about replacing a belt on a garage door opener.

I raised the end part, raised the motor part, adjusted the up and down limit, et voila! What a breeze it turned to be, and I saved a bundle! The technician who came out ($35 service call) had recommended either replacing the Genie since it was consumer grade and "so old" for ~$330 parts and labor. But, o my savior, he said, I could instead get a more robust Liftmaster system (and he conveniently had two ready to install) for just $~600 or $700 depending on the model I wanted (chain or belt). Yes, on the floor, I panicked and considered these options, and what initially really made me not take the Liftmaster upgrade was that it had built-in wifi and some stupid app... . Really? ... Really.. I need to control my garage from the couch now? The whole proposal made me feel like .... a consumer ... so I asked to pay the service call and that I would more time to think about it.  He sounded surprised like he didn't know what to do with that, so after calling his office, he offered one more option: If I were to buy the part (and it was not likely possible that I could find one), then they would install it for $120.

Boy, am I ever glad I went the cheap route: Learned some things, confirmed some things about business, and I scored non-offensive, genderless-traditionally-masculine-role points.

More DIY: Dare I try repair that which doth dry?

Squeaky dryer here we come!

Once I had an issue where our gas oven wasn't lighting: panel lit up, but it wouldn't heat. I also noticed I didn't hear the fan spinning like I had recalled it usually did. I called over an appliance service man, and I suggested I had a blown fuse, but he instead replaced the really expensive main board and called the job done-- I asked that we confirm that it kicks in the heat and asked him why the fan wasn't kicking on? I asked whether we might need to replace that fuse... He looked again, replaced the fuse, and both the heat and the fan kicked in ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Last time I had a washer/dryer issue, I called over an appliance repair outfit (I think it was the same one, not sure -- different technician came), and my washer was diagnosed with a bad part, and I was sold a refurbished replacement washer. Maybe this was the right call, I'll never really know.

For several months, our dryer had been squeaking, and the squeak had been getting more and more pronounced. I did some reading online, ordered a reasonably priced kit which included replacement felts, adhesive to attach them, a replacement belt, the pulley, and some other parts. Whole job was pretty straightforward and simple,  but wow, the things was quite caked with ages of dust! I think we actually bought the dryer refurbished 15 years ago in our first home... So I did some lethargic clean up as well. What a good feeling to do some deep cleaning :) and save a bundle in the process! Also good to have another use for the shopvac I bought with the reflooring job just a couple weeks prior.

Carpet removal and vinyl plank installation DIY project

We wanted hard flooring in our upstairs fitness studio in place of the original, builder-grade carpet, but when we called around, we shocked by how much it would cost! Looking to shave a few bucks off labor by pulling up the carpet ourselves (something I knew we could handle!) eventually turned into completing the entire job. I did lean on the friendly and knowledgeable staff at our local Lowe's as well as a couple friends for tips and encouragement. In the end, we saved a lot of money and had a terrific family learning and bonding experience which the boys will take with them on into their own renovation projects some day.

Before

Carpet Removal and floor substrate preparation

Besides chopping and rolling the carpet, the composite foam pad underneath also had to come up... and then the tedious, laborious scraping and smoothing of any glue residue and remnant foam, sticking up nail heads (there were a couple!), and uneven wood surface joins (yep there was one).

Also had to prep the door frame trim to tuck new flooring underneath -- that was a dumb move. :(  and a lot  of work . .

And finally laying the vinyl plank flooring

Lots of measuring, scoring, snapping, and cussing (when the kids had gone to bed. . . and through the night .. literally until school drop off time in the a.m. one night!)

Pretty challenging to "rip" the plank without real saw :O

And add some quarter-round trim