August 2024: Neon Green to Dove Grey to Black Bean

Painting 3430 has long been on the to-do list & we finally walked all the steps to make it happen. Thanks to Mountain Painting Co. w/Dave Mountain at the helm (owner/boss), Amilcar Hernandez (part owner & project manager) & all the painters who did such a stellar job taping off, scraping the old, spraying, followed by rolling & finally brushing around the windows. Dave said it should look great for 15 or so years. TOTAL COST: $6,000

(Original 1965 neon green paint, nail holes filled)

(Primer being applied to scraped areas)

Golden Wheat: A Sweet, Neat Treat Complete

We worked with remote employee Steve H. at Edelen Doors & Windows (showroom on NE 102nd, near Halsey) to purchase a Therma-Tru fiberglass door in golden wheat with rain glass + Emtek hardware. It was installed today by Darren & Johnathan in just under four hours. The color is sharp but pleasing, the hardware heavy yet smooth, the window nicely filtered & it's a solid step forward in sussing out house paint colors. TOTAL COST: $4,134

We ADOOR our new front entry piece! 💛

(Steel door from 2014. Basic, warped & ugly. We'll miss the screen door that wasn't an option to re-hang.)

(Dwyer Lumber & Plywood Co. stamp on wall around door frame)

(Door in, hardware not)

(Need to modernize lighting & address numbers)

Acrylite for Life

We knew the rear patio covering (permitted & built in the 70's, after the house in 1965) was in sore shape & needed replacing (had needed replacing for maybe....10+ years is a guess). So we finally got 'er done in November, 2022. We worked with Cascade Fence & Deck again as they had a promotional fall sale on their Acrylite patio covers. Acrylite is a strong, stiff & durable plastic prized for its optimal clarity. We choose a dark brown framing w/two rain gutters & 'cool blue heatstop' panels that provide UV + heat protection, filtered light as well as complete dryness in rain (great for greenhouses). This baby measures 10 feet deep x 24 feet wide x 8 feet tall. TOTAL COST: $12,000

Original patio cover with three metal legs, one gutter on south side & corrugated green plastic covering.

Previous wood frame without original green covering.

Old covering completely removed. Demolition took less than 30 minutes!

All pieces of the original covering in one not very big heap.

First new leg in the ground & a watertight strip attached to house.

Three legs set in concrete & both gutters in. 

New & oh so nice!

Doing the Splits

Two Mitsubishi mini-splits, one ductless heat pump & plenty of exterior piping to cover hosing were installed by All Fuel this July 5th, 2022.  It was a full 12 hour job from start to finish. One larger mini-split now resides in the living room, a smaller one in the back bedroom.  Mini-splits not only filter air, they help keep the inside of a space consistently warm OR cool at a much more affordable cost than furnaces or baseboards (which 3430 has in all rooms).  They are extremely quiet, easy to maintain (🤞) & environmentally friendly because they use less energy/electricity + non-ozone depleting coolant.  It's advised not to turn them off so they run at a maintained temperature.  Since the exterior walls of 3430 were finally insulated in 2020 (the roof & crawlspace [w/vapor barrier] were insulated a few years before), it really holds in the heat (great when it's cold, awful when it's hot) which makes it hard to do much of anything during high heat days except take a cold shower, lie down & complain.  Jeffrey Jones did the electrical work, including removing the old landline telephone box & cables from the exterior of the house & installing two new outlets in non-functional/loose ones.  A $500 rebate was received from Energy Trust of Oregon around August 10th. TOTAL COST: $11,421

Living room mini-split getting placed.

Bedroom mini-split going in.

Heat pump on south side of house.

Hosing from both mini-splits (one through crawlspace, one on exterior of house) going into heat pump.

Indoor electrical panel with new wiring/breakers/wafers & cookies ;)

New outdoor electrical wiring (inside grey pole) on north side of 3430 going from panel into crawlspace.

Old telephone box & wiring is OUTTA HERE!

Condensation drip (white pipe on left) + piping that hides hoses from bedroom mini-split coming down northeast side of house & going through crawlspace to heat pump.

Piping that hides hoses from living room mini-split wrapped around west & south side of house attaching to heat pump.