• Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact
  • Let’s Organize These Posts:

    • Art Attack
    • Backyard
    • Barn
    • Basement
    • Bathroom
    • Beach
    • Bedrooms
    • Being Thrifty
    • Business-y
    • Buying and Renting and Selling
    • Casual Celebrations
    • Closets
    • Curb Appeal
    • Dainty Details
    • Deck
    • Decor
    • Dining Room
    • DIY
    • Dog-Related
    • Entryway
    • Flooring
    • For the Kids
    • Garage
    • Gardening
    • Helping The Economy
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects
    • Holiday-Related Projects
    • Home Safety
    • Kitchen
    • Lighting
    • Living Room
    • Merry Travels
    • Office Space
    • Organized
    • Other Pads
    • Outdoor Living
    • Scooter Fun
    • Stairwell
    • Sunroom
    • Supporting Sponsors
    • The Art Room
    • Tools
    • Uncategorizable
    • Wedding
    • Windows
    • Work-pads
  • Search

  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)
  • Search

  • Pages

    • blog
    • Good Press: Special Features, Freelance Projects, and Long-Term Clients
    • Privacy Policy
    • about emily
    • before + after
      • before + after – transforming my first home
      • before + after, our current home
    • contact me
    • choose a badge and share the merrypad.com love
  • Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact

A Sneak Peek into #GenieSummit 2012

April 30, 2012

My travels have taken me all over the place lately, trips for which I’m very lucky. I’m feeling a little bit nomadic and like an airport security pro lately with all of the recent traveling for blogging and other jobs, I don’t even travel with my own shampoo, conditioner, or soap anymore. Blouse-squeeze-packing aside, unlike any seriously metropolitan-subway-taxi excursions, this latest trip made for a downright relaxing two days in the rural towns of Mt. Hope and Baltic, Ohio.

#GenieSummit 2012

Rural, I strongly emphasize. The Genie Company is headquartered among the largest Amish population in the country, which seems like a crazy disconnect at first for a company that has mastered the art of not having to manually open a door, but we learned that the first garage door systems were designed and manufactured by the Amish, so go fancy yourself that. As we were shuttled from the Akron, Ohio airport, the landscape quickly turned from city to countryside, with rolling hills, beautiful orchards, and pastures extending further than I could see.

These next pictures were taken from inside headquarters, a building that’s more so a masterfully architectural phoenix in the middle of cow fields and Amish barns, set back and up away from the street itself but totally the big cheese in town by employing, uh, lots of people, Amish and otherwise. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and maybe a little disruptive to the natural surroundings, but it sure gives those employees a wonderful view and access to great craftsman.

An overcast countryside at Genie headquarters, Mt. Hope, OH.

Looking out over Amish Countryside, Mt. Hope, OH.

Oh look, a horse and buggy. I wasn’t lying about the Amish countryside thing, I wish they’d come do my landscaping and lawn maintenance, they’re fabulous.

An overcast countryside at Genie headquarters, Mt. Hope, OH. And an Amish horse and buggy. The brunt of the Genie experience involved a tour of its assembly plant in Baltic, Ohio, where we had an opportunity to learn about marketing and distribution and then actually wander through the plant to watch door openers being assembled and quality-checked. Machinery and operations can be so interesting to observe in person (says this dorky project efficiency girl). And they churn out nearly 900 assembled and packaged products every day; I don’t really have a good scale for how awesome or not awesome that is, but I can extrapolate from my own experiences that it’ll probably take me an entire day to unwrap, read directions, and then install my opener someday, so… they win.

Casings for Genie Garage Door Openers.

Side note: Still getting used to and loving the 50mm lens that Pete bought me last Fall. Outside of the house when I have room to stand back and focus, I’ve been trying to use it exclusively to learn how better about how it works, and this next picture felt particularly charming thanks to the radical depth of field.

The Genie Company Assembly Plant. Baltic, OH.

The Genie Company Assembly Plant. Baltic, OH.

It’s always interesting to see how companies will rag on their products for quality control measures; Genie does this interestingly, by installing randomly selected products and letting them simulate opening and closing a door upwards of and beyond 5,000 cycles to test for mechanical mishaps and audible issues, even testing to see if any models produce oil droplets on the track overtime. QC testing rules. I had some what-I-thought-would-be great pictures of this mechanism, but it was an Emily-meets-50mm fail so… nada. Just a picture of me, maybe? Sure, I’ve got one of those.

Me, inside Genie.

Right. Warehousing the products took me back in time to my first-ever job which was on a team performing an inventory count at Dunlop Tires in Buffalo, NY. It involved counting individual tires and differentiating them based on tread markings for two consecutive 16-hour days, easily making it the most almost-union experience I’ve ever had. I’m not exaggerating, I was 18 years old, I was just as process and accuracy-oriented as I am today, but I had tire counting dreams for weeks (and by weeks, I mean years). Product inventory headaches aside, forklifts look like a fun drive.

Genie Company, Baltic, OH Assembly Plant.

I’ll plan for a follow-up post on the products themselves in the future; I didn’t get to handle or participate in an installation, but they are sending us a product to test out for ourselves.

**And with that said, The Genie Company did pay for my travel and lodging, but not my own airport parking investment or any of the string cheese, beer, or bad sandwiches I ate in any of the four airports I spent quality time in. I wasn’t under any obligation to discuss to share pictures or my opinions with you. If I pinch my finger off installing the door opener, you’ll hear about that too.

***P.S. How many other travelers become overwhelmingly squirrely when traveling, and eat everything in sight? I think I do it out of fear of when my next meal will be coming. And the string cheese in the Philadelphia airport was divine, even if it constituted my lame Thursday night din-din.

Share

Garage  / Merry Travels  / Supporting Sponsors

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

Leave A Reply


Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • Instagram

    merrypad

    Merrypad by Emily Fazio
    Instagram post 17902304861708711 Instagram post 17902304861708711
    Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️ Highly recco mining those #herkimerdiamonds ✌️
    Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garl Pt. 2: Well before Halloween, the last of the garlic went into the home garden: 10 rows [L>R] 6 whole Nootka Rose as an experiment, 3x8 Mennonite-grown cloves from Aman’s, and 6x8 (and, I think, total 112? notes are cryptic) “normal.”
#gardennotes #growinggarlic #garden2023 #whatisnormal #merrypadathome
    Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of Out of sight but [documented so it’s] not out of mind! #garden2024 kicks off with my favorite biennial: elephant garlic! 15 cloves planted from small, to medium, to enormous. #gardennotes
    Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this i Annual garlic notes for #garden2023, pt. 1: this is getting ooc, and I love it. 👩‍🌾🧑‍🌾

🧄 65% of the planting is in a new plot in the country. 🧄 Seeing if NR grows bigger with more sunlight. 🧄 Big @chasefarms cloves from 2021 were really productive in our home garden; can’t wait to see how they can show up next year in the new space. 🧄

Hand-turned a small bed, but big thanks to my sister, who rolled into town just in time to help me double its size (and did not complain once).
    One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stal One straggler from #garlic2021 debuted with 7 stalks and 7 scapes, and I can’t wait to see this mammoth looks like when it’s pulled next month. #garlic2022 

Also, fierce springtime performance by parsley, chamomile, and self-seeded cilantro.
    Annual garlic notes #garden2022 ~315 cloves total Annual garlic notes #garden2022
~315 cloves total
50 in new, unfenced garden
Still need thick mulch on everything
Did a terrible job tracking varieties when I harvested, so it’s all a mix of hardneck now 😒
Added some big cloves from @chasefarms and look forward to adding some @fruition_seeds in #garden2023 when @porterfarmscsa delivers.
    Load More... follow emily: @merrypad



  • Like Us On Facebook

    Facebook Pagelike Widget



  • Popular Posts

    • How to fix an IKEA drawer. The Easy Fix For Broken IKEA Drawers 66.9k views
    • DIY sideboard rehab. 7 Steps for Restoring an Old Midcentury Sideboard Buffet 56.8k views
    • How to design and make a barn quilt. How to Make Your Own Barn Quilt 50k views
    • How to hang art on brick surfaces using specialty clips. The Easy Way to Hang Art on Brick or Stone 40.1k views
    • DIY driveway removal. How to Remove an Old Asphalt Driveway 35.1k views
    • Our DIY flagstone patio. Building a Flagstone Patio in One Day 32.8k views
    • Tips for dying pasta different colors, and a Halloween Recipe for the kids. How to Dye Pasta Different Colors (Halloween Recipe) 32.5k views
    • Fix an ikea dresser drawer. Life Support For An IKEA Dresser 29.7k views
    • Goodbye, gold fireplace covering. Less Is More: How to Remove a Fireplace Surround 29.5k views
    • After: Custom wooden garden fence. Designing a Durable Wooden Fence For Our Beautiful Backyard Garden 23k views



  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)





  • a little bit of everything, friends, DIY, and inspiration

    • Dadand.com < My husband and his BFF
    • HGTV
  • Some Legal

    Merrypad incorporates the occasional affiliate link to Amazon.com and Minted; we link to many other websites and products, but if it is in context of a paid sponsorship, it is always noted as such. Please review the privacy policy and contact me if you have any additional questions.

    Theme customized by Pete Fazio Creative, the guy from dadand.com.


© Copyright Merrypad