Basic insulation that meets the R value standards between the joists tied in place with plastic string and vapor barrier plastic will do in most cases. Plus, it is much easier to access pipes etc. if needed than through polymerized in place foam.
My garage door opener croaked today. 
When this happened to the other one a year ago, the problem was that the plastic drive gears had been completely worn down after 25 years.
I fixed that one, and I suspect this one is something similar, but since they are now 26 years old I’ve decided to replace them.
Being that old, they don’t have external protection devices such as infrared sensors. We would get dinged on an inspection for not being up to code if/when we sell the house, so I am just going to bite the bullet and swap them out.
The current ones are chain drive and I’m going with a belt drive, so hopefully they are a lot quieter too. You can hear these suckers from all the way across the house.
Smart move. Buyers will make fuss about this stuff. Our buyers made fuss about one of our garage doors apparently not reversing during a test done by their inspector. The door spring on that door was replaced by a pro a few years ago and properly adjusted. The dumb inspector used a 2x4 to test. We called the pros who came out and laughed at that method. Mr. B demonstrated to the buyers that the door reversed when he gave it a push while standing underneath. 
This is actually not that dumb. In fact, the installation instructions for my new openers say, in a section labelled (in large bold letters) “TO REDUCE THE RISK OF SEVERE INJURY OR DEATH”:
The reversing gets a little tricky when the door is almost closed, because the opener has to somehow know when the resistance is because it hit the floor vs. hitting an object. If this is not correctly adjusted you can crush a child or pet.
Our door was properly adjusted to begin with so the fuss was much ado about nothing - I guess they wanted to find something wrong with the house. I don’t know what the Precision Door pros used as I was not there but they told Mr. that an inspector concerned about a door would not use a 2x4 test - that is for layfolk like homeowners, and it is really imprecise and easy to mess.
In any case, consider that money spent on a new opener money well invested! Plus, you are saving a bundle on the installation by installing it yourself.
The hard parts are already done, which is mounting things to the garage door and the ceiling. I can just reuse the hardware that is already there.
Not really a home improvement issue, but along the lines of saving myself money - should I throw money at my busted lawnmower again knowing the repair will last a year or less, buy a cheap mower, or just get a service? We will probably only be in this house for another year, and I don’t think I will need a lawnmower at my Cape house.
We left our lawnmower at the house we sold. 
No regrets. You would need to dispose of the lawnmower, too. I would get a service if it is not outrageously expensive. OTOH, if your house is mostly targeted to first-time homebuyers, they might appreciate that cheap lawnmower… but then again, you would have to junk the old one.
My post above reads like a bunch of random musings. Kiddo was here doing her taxes and asking me questions while I was posting and editing.
My vote is for either fixing up the old mower or getting a lawn service. Then when you sell your house, you can just put the old mower on the curb with a “free” sign. The new owner might appreciate the cheap new mower that comes with the house or might ask to remove it (for example, if the family is as much into plug-in yard equipment as we are). Our buyers really liked getting our old mower, but it was a freshly tuned Honda.
We are still using the lawn mower that came free with our original house. It was old in 1989, but it refuses to die!
Speaking of plug in yard tools, I highly recommend Greenworks. We have a hedge trimmmer, a leaf blower, and several chainsaws (don’t ask). All work like magic and with so much less noise!
Got some ‘curb appeal’ - we are in the South (N AL), and on the left part of our front lawn, we had some nice flowering stuff, but it was all back a bit from the road (a nice now large white dogwood, some rhododendron, some azaleas). After studying and purchasing plants at 3 places, I had our newly hired yard guy extend the bed (taking out the grass) and planting 3 small trees (a red dogwood, a white dogwood, and a redbud), more rhododendron, geraniums, and some flowering vines - carolina jessamine, confederate jasmine, a few yellow/green cypress, some creeping phlox, mohawk viburnum, and a otto luyken laurel. Male neighbor commented positively on the new plants too! He just got done clearing out gumball trees in his back yard (all very large trees). Another neighbor found a great device for picking up the gumballs, that you just roll over the yard (push type) - those trees are in their front yard, and they are very large trees. I am going to draw a picture of what plants are where in case any fail to thrive and I need to replace. Next project is a custom 2 story storage building. Got our taxes done under the wire; first grandbaby may arrive as early as April 25 (original due date May 7, but baby is growing fast now and almost 7 lb…) I crossed 5 planned work days off…
Washed the woodwork on the front of the house with oxyclean type of wash. It looks like we wil not get much rain today, and Wed will be a dry enough day to stain it. Hate the weathered grey look. I’d rather paint it, but the style calls for stain.
Need to pick paint color for the house now that the garage is resided!
What are gumballs?
@TempeMom , gumballs are the nasty, hard, spiky seed pods of the sweet gum tree. They are the bane of our existence. They cover parts of our yard making walking uncomfortable, never mind wanting to sit on the grass. Unfortunately, the ones that make a mess of our yard are actually on the neighbor’s property. Otherwise, they’d be gone.
Oh! We call those goatheads.
Ouch! Sounds like someone needs to stick a few copper nails into that gumball tree!
We call these goatheads, Wikippedia has images of the thorns, the are small enough to jab into your or your dogs feet
Tribulus_terrestris
Demolition has started!
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/32532343@N00/27681268458/in/dateposted-public/
And they’ve started some inside work - the circular staircase has been removed (I helped with that, holy cow it was heavy) and they’ve been working on straightening out the stairs. They are going to start ripping out the bathrooms soon.
And we got all the stumps ground (16 of them!) and the trees the ConCom is making me plant go in next week after we meet with the conservation agent tomorrow, who is going to tell us exactly where they will be planted. 8-|
$1000 for stump grinding and $1300 to plant two trees. We are moving into full-blown money pit status. 
I hear you! Tree Gestapo.
$1,000 for several stumps is a bargain. We paid $300 to grind the MOAS (mother of all stumps) in our backyard about 15 years ago. Mr. B wanted to tackle it himself, but after about a day, he capitulated and called A to Z Stump. Lol. But we only paid $300 to take that giant Douglas fir down.
But… $1300 for 2 trees! They better be giant specimens.