liftmaster 98022 -- can it work?
Edit: pretty sure you've all given me some confidence, thank you. 🥹 Just to be clear, for this side mount "make it work" situation, we would be replacing everything -- door, rail, converting spring system, and installing the opener in the process. Sounds like they might be thinking to install the shaft + opener at the same time.
We called our neighborhood warehouse store to get an opener installed and TL;DR, a traditional ceiling mount won't work for us unless we're willing to have the door stop ~3 inches below the opening. One company said they could "make" a side mount work, but reading the requirements and other posts it sounds like we're about an inch shy of meeting the width requirements... I should add we'd be getting a new door and new spring system in this process, so maybe they plan to make it work by mounting the door not quite centered to give themselves extra space on the side where the mount is going? (Left side pictured, right side is even narrower.) Other than making a hole in the drywall to the left (which they said they would not do!) I am not sure what else can be done here...
Is there any hope? We use our garage every single day and manually opening and closing it is such a pain. We thought this would be easy since we already have the ceiling outlet but I guess that explains why the former owner never bothered...