Open House - A behind-the-scenes view of Manage My Home

The long haul

You've heard it all before: We live in a short-attention-span culture based on quick thrills, fly-by-night fads and short-term gratification.

Sorry — what was I talking about? Oh, right. Short attention spans.

Anyway, rest assured that Manage My Home doesn't work that way. When you're doing a long-term project around the house, you want a site experience that will be there the whole way. So check out our Project Center. Not only do we walk you through pretty complicated projects step by step, but our community offers a great chance to expand your project experience beyond the simple act of finishing.

Check out this forum post on lawnmowers. We have experts and homeowners swapping ideas, teaching tips and more, to help you make the most of every project you do.

-Sam, Copywriter

Universal Remote for your garage

Recently my wife and I found we needed an additional garage door opener for my scooter. It was getting old parking out front, running through the house, opening the garage door, then getting back on the scooter and driving into the garage. So I went on a journey to buy an additional garage door opener. Do you know how hard it is to find the code for your opener, then find the right opener, then find it in stock somewhere? I began to wonder if there is a universal remote control much like the ones you can buy for your TV. There is!

With this remote control kit you can easily add an additional garage door remote control or replace a missing or broken garage door opener without programming. Simply remove your existing garage door opener button and replace it with the Skylink Smartbutton. The easy two wire installation means you can have the system up and running in under 5 minutes simply by replacing your existing garage door opener button mounted on the wall. The improved 100 foot transmission range means you can control your garage door from several houses away. The kit features rolling code communication between the remote and smart button, which means that, others cannot capture your code and control your garage door. Rolling codes constantly change keeping your system secure.

-Garret, Industrial Designer

It's Not Just for Homeowners

I've had a lot of discussion recently about who the target user is for Manage My Home. As an apartment dweller, I feel the need to shout out that Manage My Home helps me solve problems in my home. Granted, I'm not adding a deck to my sixth floor window, but I still consider the site an invaluable resource.

My Top Five Helpful Articles/Projects for Renters:

1. Allergy-proof your bedroom - I'm really suffering this week with allergy induced migraines. I've found my weekend project!
2. Replace a showerhead - always my first project in a new place.
3. Moving Center - I'm getting ready to move and Manage My Home has gathered all the information I need into one place.
4. Paint center - While most large projects are out when you're renting, you can usually make the place yours with a coat of paint.
5. Garden on Your Balcony - Just because you live in a city apartment, doesn't mean you can't have a garden!

-Alex, Marketing

Curating Content

Over the past couple of weeks the content team has been planning a curated content component for Manage My Home. We're scouring the Internet for quality blogs, forums and websites blanketing a range of home and garden subjects. Our developers are creating an editorial tool that will help us collect and present informative and (hopefully) inspirational content in tandem with our proprietary content.

The idea is to keep doing what we do well, while also connecting our readers to what others do well. If you have any favorite home-related blogs, websites or forums you think we should check out, please send us a note.

-Erin, Writer

Under new management

If you don't mind us saying so, Manage My Home has a lot of great tools for getting more done every day. One of the latest can be found here -- the Personal Home Manager. You can get in touch with our personal advisers for tips and resources on every part of your home. You can call us, email us or use the click-to-call button -- and we'll call you.

With Personal Home Managers, our Twitter Neighborhood, Answers feature and every other part of the site, we're always looking to hear from our users and learn more about what you want to know and how we can help. And the best way for us to find out, we think, is to ask.

So: What do you look for in a personal home manager? What kind of ideas are you looking for? In short, how can we help you? As always, we can't wait to hear from you.

-Sam, Copywriter