garage shelving frustration

Today I tried one of my garage shelving brackets on a stud, and it's TOO WIDE! UGH! Why would you design a heavy duty bracket that is meant to be on a stud too wide for a stud? It makes no sense. This has thrown my whole plan off - the brackets are "L" brackets, which means they don't have a third leg to make a triangle which would impede the space of the shelf underneath.

I spent 8 hours over the last several days trying to come up with options that I liked and only found distant second place ideas to the one I had. I decided to try the bracket on a different stud in the area where I was going to install them, and lo and behold it works! The darn garage is build with different sized studs! Ugh. The bracket barely fits though, and I will have to slant the holes inward to keep them from splitting the side of the stud.

I trimmed the bamboo on the neighbor's side. Technically we're not obligated to do this, but it seems like a nice gesture to stay on good terms. We are very close to deciding that the palm trees have to go. I hate all the maintenance and the waste they create. Between the palms and the bamboo, I haven't trimmed the ivy in weeks because the yard waste bin has been full.

The beautiful metal gates we had installed last fall have gotten so far out of plumb that one doesn't latch and the other has the two halves rubbing against each other and scraping the paint. I've been bugging the contractor since JUNE to look at it. His metal subcontractor who put them in is supposed to be here soon but I haven't heard any word.