Marymoor Trails
Board of Directors Meeting
July 24, 2023

The Marymoor Trails Annual Meeting of Homeowners convened at 6:00PM on Monday July 24, 2023 via Zoom. Attending: Michael Niksa, President; Josh Gibson, Treasurer; Chris Cho, Buildings; Van Chesnutt, Landscape; Linda O’Hara Secretary; Tim Hollingshead, Managing Director from Morris Management, and guest Ryan Trueb, Project Manager from Morris Management.

Homeowners Forum

Homeowner from Bldg. J reports that a cat door was installed in the building siding by a previous resident — can this be returned to original condition by Gene the Handyman? Michael will have Gene come out and close up the cat door ASAP.

Major Projects Update

Ryan Trueb, Project Manager from Morris Management, provided an update on several major projects: asphalt sealcoating, Bldg. J fire repairs, and Bldg. B foundation work.

• Asphalt Sealcoating –The sealcoat contractor is coming out Wednesday and Friday, July 26 and 28.  This sealcoat work is weather-dependent. Ryan has sent out a notice calling out which building areas will be done on which day. Ryan has also spoken with Ken’s Towing about having cars removed at resident expense if they are not cleared from the asphalting area. Additionally, he has asked Premiere Landscaping to turn off sprinklers on those days to keep the work area dry. Ryan will speak with Marymoor Heights about using their guest parking spaces in case ours overflows during asphalting. Trash pickup on Thursday should not be an issue, as it is OK to drive over the sealcoat that was done the day before. Barricades will be removed when OK to drive on.

• Building J update – The City of Redmond will be installing a new water line and water meter. This is needed for fire sprinkler installation, which is a new code requirement for residential units since this building was constructed. The lack of sprinkler installation has been holding up the progress of work. The City of Redmond will be doing this work while the asphalt is being torn up. Note: In fact, the City of Redmond did their excavation the day after new asphalt was installed, tearing up brand new work. We will hold off doing the sealcoat asphalt resurfacing behind the island in front of J-135 and J-136 until this work is complete. We will get the dumpster and port-a-potty moved to complete the resurfacing and patch the hole made by City of Redmond. Ryan will confirm with everyone when we have the water meter and water line installed and can proceed to the next element.
• Fire repairs – A huge amount of work has been getting done, making great progress.  Major components are complete; crews are working now on painting and interior repairs. Looking at a projected completion date of September.
• Bldg. B Foundation – Tim provided an update from Jehan.  Jehan has a pre-construction meeting with City of Redmond. It will now be a month or less before work is started — late August. Jehan found we do not need to move people’s belongings out of the building while work is being done. The slabjacking contractor can move furniture in the room from one side to another, do the slabjacking and move the furniture back.
• Sprinklers – Chris reports that sprinklers along walkways between center units are consistently sprinkling water on lower siding, causing rot and premature wear. Michael asked Chris to see if there are sprinklers that will not spray water on sidings, or if drip irrigation is an option.

Treasurer’s Report

Josh is concerned about a big jump in our insurance quote in June.  Josh expected it to go up 33%, and it went up much more than that. We paid $11,000 in May, and then were billed $19,000 in June. This is for one month of fire insurance – our rate has skyrocketed since the Bldg. J fire event. Tim will research this – he says a lot of time the first month has a down payment, and you will pay for 9 months rather than 12. Josh says if he could get more clarification, that would be excellent.

June 2023 month-end balances were as follows:

• Operating Account (checking) balance $49,755.97
• Replacement Fund Account (savings) balance of $540,711.78
•  Special Assessment funds on hand: $807,146

Landscape Report

• Last week Davey Tree came out and fertilized our trees.

Summer Maintenance

Summer is a busy time for repairs and maintenance. Handyman Gene is back from Ukraine and ready to start work. Michael gave a thorough report on work to be done for each building. His full report follows for your information.

Decks

• We’re going to keep the Trex replacement of the wooden decks going. The ones that have been done look amazing. Another chunk of them will be done this year. Several folks requested their deck is chosen this time around.
  • Michael has continued the standing order to blow off, power wash, paint, recoat the various decks as necessary. Gene uses good judgement here and the cost of keeping these up annually (even as occupants ignore them and let leaves rot on them) is cheaper than replacement.

Siding

• Some building south facing walls have issues. This is where we have been targeting touch up painting for the last few years to save us money. But some of these boards are getting so old they need replacing.
  • Gene has recommended that we consider starting to replace whole segments of walls (like one entire surface at a time). This fits well in line with our reserve study plan, so Michael is inclined to do it. We’ll spread this out over the years much like the Trex decking has been spread out.
  • We considered Hardiplank, a durable cement-based siding that looks like wood, but are rejecting that idea in favor of cedar for the following reasons:
    • Hardi is much more expensive (even though it lasts much longer);
    • Hardi is much heavier in weight from cedar, requiring extra boards and supports to be mounted to the building or engineering work to support its weight; and
    • Doing part of the building with Hardi will match poorly with the existing cedar siding.
    • As noted, it’s only the south facing sides that are exposed to the sun and weather that look bad and are no longer paintable. We pretty much never need to fix the North or East facing sides. So, we may as well let them roll and deal with the non-uniform wear in a cost-effective manner. For that, we need the product we use to match what we have.
  • If we are going to take all the siding off a wall around a window, Michael wants that window to be replaced. When the siding is off it is the ideal time to use the new-construction nail flanges on a window for the optimal mounting and to integrate them well with the vapor barrier paper behind the siding.
    • Gene says he can order and replace them with Milgard Vinyl windows which is what several of our units already use (see I134, A102, and a few others). He says he gets a contractor discount when he orders 20+ at once which we can perhaps take advantage of in the future. But we can take this in strides year over year too.
    • Our reserve study shows we will eventually need to replace the windows. Michael’s thought is to spread this cost out by taking advantage of any re-siding that needs to be done. This will show the Reserve folks that we’re making incremental progress.

Fire Panels Secured to External Walls

• We have some issues with how some of the fire panels are secured to building walls (Building I is the worst). Panels have been installed by vendors (Tyco, Comcast, or Ziply Fiber). Then sometimes, the siding behind the panel rots. Gene wants to get at them but doesn’t know what to do.
• Michael told him for Comcast and Ziply, just lift the lids, unmount the boxes, replace the siding, and remount them. If something goes wrong, which it probably won’t, we’ll figure it out after. They’re pretty robust.
• For Tyco, Michael wants to call Tyco and get them to either set them in test mode or send someone out on the same day Gene replaces the siding because those panels are much more finnicky. Maybe he can do it the day they do inspections this year when they’re out here anyway. Michael is targeting Gene to be able to do the one on Building I this year.
• For the panel on Building I, it’s very exposed to the elements. Michael asked Gene if he could devise a small roof/house to put over the boxes to direct the water to run-off over them instead of getting behind them and rotting the siding and he said he could. Resident in Building I seemed fine with this happening there as long as it doesn’t block their path. Michael thinks this would help us improve the long-term integrity of the siding and buildings, so he’s going to ask Gene to try to build something there when he can get the siding replaced.

Roofs

• We have noted that we should probably check and reseal any water heater/furnace exhausts on the roofs as necessary. Gene will use a high temperature sealant and do these as he’s up there.

Fences

• Fences need repair. Our plan is to start incrementally replacing whole bits of fences and billing the reserves incrementally. instead of replacing 1-2 boards. Some of them get perennially bad. 

Chimneys

• Under investigation.

Everything else

• Is really not bad. Gene will handle the odds and ends as necessary, like a garage door issue or a touch up here and there.

Gene will get started on the roof inspections and the general cleaning (blowing, power washing, etc.) this coming week. He says he’ll let us know about a week in advance when we need to post notices for the folks with elastomeric decks so they can clean them up and not park their cars under them.

Next Board Meeting

• Next regularly scheduled meeting is Monday September 11, 2023 at 6:00pm via Zoom. Tim will send out meeting link information to Board and owners who request it.