Sara Goodwin - Portland, Oregon Appraiser

Rain Barrels: They've has been on my to-do list for about two years now. Realizing that I'm more of a list-writer than a do-er when it comes to manual projects, I enlisted the help of a friend, Maurice to help me check this project off my list.

I started some online research about the basics to creating a rain barrel verses buying a pre-made rain barrel. Even with paying for labor, I figured I could save about $50 by DIY. Every dollar counts right now, aye?

Thanks to the popularity of water conservation and craigslist.org, finding rain barrels around here is pretty easy. A lot of places sell plastic grain containers for about $5 to $20. These are popular for rain barrel conversion, but I was willing to spend a bit more for some wine barrels. We are fortunate enough to have enough wineries in the area to find these for sale locally. Once I started searching for the wine barrels, I realized that I would have to pay quite a bit more for the esthetics of a nice old wine barrel verses a grain container... about $130 more.... But with a few more days of searching on craigslist, a winery that was going out of business was willing to sell them for $50. That would do. My friend went and picked them up. It wasn't until he toted them to our house that I realized how big a 60 gallon wine barrel could be. They barely fit in the back of his stripped out van. He also picked up (or found laying around) the following: a stopper for the bunghole (yes, it is called a bunghole), a spigot, some mesh (replacement window screen), flexible metal and bendable plastic downspout house. I found it a bit of an eye-opener that he could find all this material in our garage with exception to the spigots (... although later I did find one old spigot in there that would have worked).

Maurice built a rain barrel stand out of recycled wood that he had laying around for the back yard rain barrel (gravity is key for getting the water out). This stand has to support about 400 lbs of barrel and water... the sturdy beast he built will certainly suffice. The front yard rain barrel will sit on our concrete porch and so there is no need for a stand there.

We did a water test and found that the barrels had dried out enough that they would leak a bit until the moister allowed the wood to expand. This is good to know and we'll be watching the barrels over the first couple of rains so that we can divert water away from the house properly.

Maurice then cut a hole for the spigot and the top for the downspout, sealed the bunghole. He lined the top hole with the window screen mesh to keep the bugs out and secured the mesh with the flexible metal (he mentioned that an embroidery ring would have done the job as well... sadly I did not have one).

He hoisted the barrels into place (yes, by himself... this I do not recommend) and cut into the existing downspouts. The plastic flex downspout was routed to the top of the wine barrel.

Now we wait for the rain. We will have to ‘waste' at least the first fill of rainwater to ensure that the wine residue does not harm the plants or turn them pink. We may find it necessary to add an overflow hose in the future, too.

Well, that's it... our first attempts at a rain barrel. I'll update notes with trials and errors if any should occur. Now for installing a clothes line.

4/17/2009 Update:

I meant to post this note our first day of rain. The overflow valves should be installed immediately. The first night of mild rain overflowed both 60 lb barrels! We do plan on adding the overflows soon, but for now, we've been releasing the water as necessary.

10/5/2009 Update:

I just responded to a private email to someone inquiring about the rain barrel supplies that are needed. I thought I would paste the information here as well:

A platform of some sort (if you're planning on gravity flow… you can also buy a pump, but they're spendy and not as energy efficient as gravity). Remember this has to hold a barrel and 60 gallons of water, so it's got to be sturdy.

Articulated downspout - Between cut off portion of downspout and your rain barrel (there is a possibility that you can position your rain barrel directly below the downspout so this part is not necessary)

Plumbing drain cap and caulk for wine barrel's bunghole

Mesh - When you cut a hole in the top of the barrel to receive water from the downspout, you want as little debris as possible to enter the rain barrel. Our friend also found an embroidery ring that fit snuggly into the top hole (which he had to cut) where the mesh is placed

Threaded spicket and caulk to release water

Overflow pipe and caulk to divert excess water from the barrel in heavier rains - This is very important as we found out. The barrel will fill in 1/2 a nights rain… and that's from just half of a modestly sized roof. An old piece of galvanized pipe connected to the top of the barrel and draining away from any structures. One of our rain barrels has piping plus some plastic tubing connected to it which can be moved around like a second hose.

If you choose a wine barrel, will see some minor leaking coming from the barrel at first. No worries, the wood will expand again. If the water is in the wine barrel too long (especially in warm weather) your water will smell like fermented wine and fruit flies will gather. It's best to empty it in a timely fashion at first. Also, the first barrel or two might have a hint of pink to the water from the left over wine.

Eminent Domain was implemented in the US to seize individually owned property for public use.... for the betterment of a community.

In Portland, with all of the Interstates, it had to be done for the good of the masses (in other words, the city would not be what it is today without creating said infrastructures). With Interstate 5, it became a water front eye sore and divided North Portland into two parts with many turn of the century houses being destroyed in the process. With Interstate 205, they chose the path of least resistance between a few hills and low-income neighborhoods. Interstate 205 was the reason for the creation of City of Maywood Park, a neighborhood that banned together to dictate where the freeway turned in order to save their neighborhood. (By going from a neighborhood to an established incorporated city, they were able to be a voice against eminent domain...to a point... an interesting story for another time). Eminent domain will likely be repeated soon as traffic increases and talks of another Portland/Vancouver bridge proceed.

I wonder how long the houses butted up to the freeways are going to last once the city wants (er, needs) to widen the interstate or whether Portland Community College will succeed in acquiring several houses for buildings and parking lots to expand their campus (this has been proposed in more than one of their campus locations and so I find it ironic that their motto is ‘We're all about your future'). This, to me is border line abuse to allow a community college to be the reason for eminent domain. Public school, perhaps, tuition fueled college? No.

Some North Portland residents are still reeling over the eminent domain that encroached on their neighborhood and took their houses when hundreds of houses were cleared to make way for Legacy Emanuel Hospital and somewhere along the building process, the hospital ran out of funds and blocks were left vacant to this day.

The City of Portland is now threatening a different kind of eminent domain on a city icon... The ‘Made in Oregon' sign (previously the ‘White Stag' and originally the ‘White Satin' sign). It sits atop the White Stag Building and is a prominent city landmark. Now the University of Oregon has proposed to purchase building (sign and all) and like the building's previous owners, wishes to change the sign to read their logo. Apparently the powers that be at the city have decided that after three name changes, they rather like the current ‘Made in Oregon'logo and wish to keep it that way. Many Portlanders (myself included) agree. But that's no reason to throw an eminent domain tantrum and take over the sign while leaving the building up for grabs. The city sees something shiny, says ‘I want!' and through eminent domain has the legal ability to take it for their own... even if it lives on the top of a private party's building. I find this scary as a citizen. The city has determined that the sign is worth $500,000 and that would be the retribution pay for nabbing it from the present and future building owners (I suppose the electric bill would also go to the city. I hear it costs quite a bit to keep alight).

If this one small act is successful for the City of Portland, it opens new doors... Take the stories of neighborhood tear-downs to build a shopping malls (there are multiple examples of such a case... Google it). Such deeds gives a city a bad name... it reeks of a city that desperately sells out to commerce.

Our unofficial motto is ‘Keep Portland Weird'... Unless we make it so weird that laws such as eminent domain just don't make sense anymore.

4/9/2009 Update: http://www.katu.com/news/local/42685962.html

An agreement has been reached which allows the University to keep rights to the sign and a new design which is not such an glaring advertisement to be created. I guess that's what UofO had to do to keep the sign from being snatched away in an eminent domain case. On a very related topic, the city is allowing the university to doll up a nearby water tower that they own with their logo as part of the agreement.

If you have a private remarks spot on your MLS system and you take a moment to write a note such as this one:

Seriously... if you have a thorough description and pictures in your MLS listing and note any concessions that may have happened at the time of purchase, this quick note can save you oodles of phone calls from Appraisers who wish to use your listing as a comparable property.

~ Thank you

As lender-based appraisals have declined over the past year, appraisers started to lean on alternative avenues of appraising such as appraisals to contest property taxes. As markets decline across the US and taxes remain stable, this would seem to be a logical direction for any appraiser... But look carefully at your market before you redirect your energies and advertising dollars.

According to the Portland Tribune: "About 2,700 property owners appealed their 2008-09 property tax bills to the Multnomah County Board of Property Tax Appeals by the Dec. 31 deadline, up from 1,078 last year, said county spokesman Shawn Cunningham. Most of those appeals are unlikely to prevail, said Multnomah County Assessor Randy Walruff. And many homeowners will face sticker shock when they get their 2009-10 property tax increases this fall, even if home values continue falling."

This is thanks to a property tax limitations bill that passed back in 1996 which set a 3% cap on annual increases in assessed property value. This means that if you live in Multnomah County and your house was built over about four years ago, you likely have an assessed tax value that is still lower than the market value of your home.

However, if you have a newer construction or recently purchased a home that you have improved upon since the purchase date, you may be in that small percentage of home owners that is paying a higher assessed value than your home is worth.

If you live in Multnomah County, you can see a breakdown of your tax assessed values by going to Portlandmaps.com. Here are some other surrounding county web sites:

• Multnomah
• Clackamas
• Washington
• Clark (WA)

Property owners; If it appears your tax assessed value is higher than the market value, then it is a good time to seek out an appraiser.

Appraisers: If you consistantly find the tax assessed values in your area to exceed existing market values, perhaps tax contesting appraisals are in your future calling.

It's puppy season and this means a higher dog populous at your local shelter. To assist in remedying the lack of kennel space, the Oregon Humane Society is offering a ‘Black Friday Special'.... On Black Friday (November 28^th) the shelter is adopting out any animal with a majority of black in it's coloring for half the adoption fee.

Unfortunately shelters across the country experience a smaller adoption rate for animals that are primarily black over animals with multi or lighter solid colorings. You can see by looking at OHS's first page of adoptable dogs. Fourteen out of twenty dogs on this page have a majority of black coloring (and I'm not even counting ‘Berta' the dog they used for the ‘Black Friday Special' article).

Dogs are not the only animals with the color stigma. Black cats have known years of being affiliated with evil omens, bad luck or witches and broomsticks the superstitious and religious sort. Sadly even my own family feels it necessary to take precautions around Halloween and keep our incredibly cool black cat, Jazzy indoors.

So whether you're currently looking for a new companion, or plan to in the future, please go visit your local shelter first and don't overlook an animal based on size, age or color.

11/29/2008 Update:

OHS found new homes for 60 dogs, cats and small animals on Black Friday. Of course, there are still plenty of animals at the shelter, but this helps as a busy Saturday might see 30 adoptions.