I’ve made some major advancements in figuring out voice control.  Initially, I was using an independent module — but I’ve discovered the WEMO micro-processor which has made it easy to communicate with an Alexa echo.  Now you can give the Alexa a command which it sends to the WEMO — and the WEMO can then control all kinds of sensors, motors, lights, etc.

Here are instructions for how to use a WEMO to control a garage door remote.  For us, we have a garage door remote to control the front door.  So, by giving Alexa a simple command we can open and close the front door.