October 2025 Mason Farm Renovation Update

The House

Our house renovation project was quite stalled for the latter part of the summer and early fall due to a permit review issue. Frustratingly slow, and seemingly rather trivial, the issue was finally resolved last Monday, October 13, and we were able to pour a concrete footing, remove some temporary support walls in the kitchen and finalize the framing in preparation for electrical, mechanical, and plumbing inspections. Nathan has already been at work smoothing the walls after Jonathan went to town on the wallpaper, and the electricians, plumbers, and HVAC team have largely finished their work. That means that we are a series of inspections away from “cover up”, putting the drywall on, which marks the finishing stage of the renovation.

At this point, it looks like we are tentatively moving toward a completion date of February 1, 2026 (after our 9-week permitting stall). Rohatsu 2025 will be held at the Floss Street Zendo.

The Barn

Our Design Committee collected sangha input and gave that to the architects, then reviewed three schematic possibilities for a barn zendo design. An engineer and general contractor then met with the architects to dig further into these schematics and now the contractor is crunching numbers to make budget projections so that we are equipped to make informed decisions about the pros and cons of each of these schematics. We hope to see budget numbers in a week or two and evaluate any resulting changes. From there the Design Committee will propose one or two leading designs and we will advance those to the City of Milwaukie for review. 

With the Transmission Ceremony and Rohatsu looming next month, we are tentatively projecting having a leading design to share with the sangha around the turn of the year.