I just replaced the carraige on an older genie garage door opener with the three piece rail. It was a simple fix, off with the old, on with the new and I lubed the carriage and screwdrive with the recommended grease! My problem is the vibration as the carriage tracks!! I checked the joints where the rail joins together and they are tight! The design of the 3 piece rail does not lend itself to a vibration free operation! There appears to be sway from side to side with no bracing between header and motor. Question: Are there any brackets out there that can fix this problem, after market, hand made, etc.. DIYGrandpa

"We were basing our offer based on fair market value - nothing has sold in this particular development in the last few years " So how did you decide on fair market value? It gets hard with no comps. "our offer was apparently 90% of appraised value." Appraised value for what purpose? Taxes? Tax assessments always lag behind sales. An actual loan appraisal? Based on what? There are no comps "nothing has sold in this particular development in the last few years" "Houses in a similar development with similar amenities are selling at or below the price we offered currently." Similar is not the same. Location, location, location. How similar? Same schools? Same Âside of the highwayÂ? "With commission at 4%, we calculated that the sellers would make about 30,000 in the one year after painting expenses. We think, although unsure that the sellers are looking to make $100,000 on the year (which would be about a 12% increase when the market has dropped about 5% in this area)." The only thing that has anything to do with process is the "the market has dropped about 5% in this area." And Âarea can be a vague thing. In the Washington, DC metro market sales are dead in some areas and flat in some. Some areas will probably end up going down but the latest overall market assessment in the news is ~10% increase. Is this market up or down? Location, location,, location. "Just think the $100K profit in one year is a bit over the top" This has nothing to do with value and is your personal opinion (and may not even be warranted). I have purchased some pretty cruddy places and sold them in 3-4 months for more than $200,000 over acquisition cost. I hit the major problems and left the minor ones to the buyers. If I fixed them all the price would go up another $100,000 and be too high for the location. Was I "over the top" for taking on the risk? The house may indeed be overpriced, but in an area with very few sales it can get very hard to tell. Are you looking for a quick profit or a long term residence? No one wants to overpay, but I have not seen any hard evidence the price is excessive yet. CMAs get very fuzzy without recent comps. I have purchased in places way over the previous sales if they are dated. I have also been caught a few times and had to hold longer than anticipated (most of the time from unforeseen problems). It is seldom simple or cut-and-dried without good comps.

Bluffing is not against the law but threats of that nature can be construed as blackmail by the person being threatened. Where did you get the idea that making people mad was an effective dispute resolution strategy? The strongest leverage the OP had was the ability to terminate the contract. But that bridge has already been burned for no benefit without consulting a lawyer who would have warned that it would anger the architect and close the door to a timely negotiated settlement. Adding blackmail-like threats is only going to guarantee there will be no short term settlement and the OP doesn't have time to use any other method of dispute resolution. I don't see how your online comments elsewhere about responding to online complaints about your work could possibly be of use to the architect in question. This seems a very odd forum in that contractors can grandstand and post self-serving spam promoting their businesses.

The comments here are so insightful. Just goes to show how complex people lives are and how diverse and difficult their experiences have been. Chris M- You wrote- "my wife is depressed and angry every time she looks at the poor job they did with just about everything. I've tried to get her to agree to have another contractor come in and redo the kitchen at least, and some other things too but she won't go for it. Doesn't want anyone else in the house." You also wrote there is "hoarding in her family." That is a lot to unpack there, to choose a metaphor. Presumably you have been together a long time and you know her and her family and her upbringing well. It might help for you to know the roots of what is going here. Is she a perfectionist on some level and ashamed, even mortified that she screwed up by hiring the wrong people? Note, we don't think she screwed up, but might she? Was someone significant in her family of origin rigid/demanding with high standards? Was approval/love contingent on performance and appearance so now your wife cannot forgive her own imperfection and mistake and has poor self-esteem? Did someone marry beneath them (one of her parents or a grandparent or aunt) and always say that they came from better and coulda/woulda/shoulda so now your wife feels her station is lowered and she has lost her sense of self-worth? Is your wife the adult child of an alcoholic, so she, the fixer now that she sees her herself as having screwed up has lost her role in life because she is in over her head? Did your wife suffer a serious loss early on of a significant person? Have a traumatic event? Was she given the message from someone that ones possessions/appearance/home are how one is judged, rather than one's values/morals/behavior so now she sees herself as as trashed and worthless as her home? Anyhoo, you get the idea. No, please don't be her therapist. The above is just food for thought for you. And while you are thinking about the possible origins of your wife's psychopathology, why not think about yourself, too. Not many spouses would be willing to live in the space you describe for as long as you have with a spouse defiantly unwilling to exert a joule of energy to change things or even allow anyone else to. And why haven't you unpacked things yourself and hung up the pictures? Are you afraid of her? Do you think she is so fragile she will flip out totally if you do unpack and hang pictures? Have you done something not so perfect yourself so you two have struck some sort of devil's bargain? Think about it. If so, admit it. And stop talking about ancient history. How about this- Tell her, "This weekend I am unpacking, whatever. I would be very happy if you would help me and I could really use the help, but I will do it whether you help me or not." Then do it, whether she cries, or screams or yells, or curses your every family member. And if she hits you or throws the furniture around, you need to call 911 for a 5150 hold or whatever the numbers are for a psychiatric hold in your state because she would be a danger to you and herself. I mean it. Then another day, unpack the pictures and measure everything and where they will go, and show her the plan and say "This is where I am thinking of putting everything, do you like it, or do you have any suggestions? Take a half-hour to look at it. " (Make a copy in case she rips it up.) Then if she has comments about your lay-out, discuss it with her. If she has no comments, do it per your design, and think about using Command Hooks so you don't make holes in the wall in case you change your mind later on. Throw away any of your stuff you want. Do not throw away her stuff, or communal stuff like photographs. I strongly advise against getting a storage locker, they are exorbitantly expensive, and the odds are she will never go into it, and you will be spending $200 a month in perpetuity for things that are actually worth very little and that she never looks at and doesn't need. When you have done everything with your stuff and the furniture and dishes, then hire a contractor and kitchen designer if you need that. Invite your wife to the design meeting. Tell her that it is going to happen. Period. Tell her you would like her input, she has good ideas and great taste and she and her input is important and you value it and her, but it is going to happen, whether she participates or not, and you are not waiting any longer. And if she doesn't go, you will decide on the plans and you will not pay the added cost if she wakes up and wants to change things later on. And you tell the contractor no changes that you don't sign off on. You get the idea. She can go to counseling. You can go. You can go together. Meanwhile, get cracking. Remember Newton's First Law? INERTIA A body at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force.