The Secret to a Happy Marriage:  A New Garage Door

In 1996 my wonderwife Michelle and I purchased our first home.  We were living 10 hours away and would visit every few weeks until we finally moved in 1997.  We planned to spend two weeks doing some remodel work….. for two weeks.  Six months later we were still sleeping on a mattress on the sub-floor.  I am pretty sure we made every rookie mistake possible plus a few more.

Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon did not exist.  We were new to town and did not know anyone.  When we purchased the home, we had an inspection – but we had no idea what was a real problem or not.  It sure would have been nice to know who had worked on the home before us, what had been done and when, and/or just some reliable professionals. We did not know what we did not know.

Our focus was to make the house a home.  New paint, floors, trim, fixtures, and more.  We even bought tools to do it all ourselves.  Hindsight, it was crazy, but we were living the dream and ultimately it was satisfying to learn how to maintain our home and improve it.

Reflecting on the project 21 years later - we laugh a lot about how naïve we were.  At the time we chose to not change out the windows or the interior doors.  We assumed they were huge jobs.  Turns out they would have been the easiest jobs with the help of professionals, and both would have made HUGE differences.  Ultimately both were completed in 2011.

In 2016 our Christmas gift to each other was a new garage door and garage door opener.  Of all the projects we did through the years, this one strangely had the greatest impact.  Instantly we fell back in love with our home and really enjoyed the approach.  Multiple neighbors stopped and made positive comments.  Our garage is brighter and warmer plus the door and opener are super quiet.  As a bonus, we can now control our garage door from our smartphones. Very cool and way higher ROI then we ever expected.  Finally, it was a nice way to raise our Domoscore.

Marriages and homes require love, attention, and maintenance.  We never imagined a new garage door could create so much happiness for our home and our marriage. Give it a try every 25-years or so.