This weekend, I installed a garage door opener.  I picked up the cheapest ($130) one I could find at Sears and figured it would be a snap to put in.  It wasn’t hard, but it took longer than expected.  Since there was no prior opener, I had to build a structure, coming from the middle of the garage ceiling, to support the opener.  Now, if I had installed an opener previously, I would have probably built the structure using pieces of angled metal.  Instead, I chose to build mine using 2x4s.  It ended up being very sturdy…. Even to the point of me feeling comfortable hanging from it. 

Other than that, I had to put in an electrical outlet near the opener.  A good friend of mine let me use a couple tools, so that I could accomplish all of this.  Without those, I would probably still be opening the door by hand… anyway, if I get a chance, I’ll post a couple pictures of the wooden structure that I built.  I’m proud of it 🙂

Update: Due to demands, I have posted some pictures, available in the photo gallery.