My understanding is that a radon reading of 2 is the upper bound for reasonable regular exposure. If you're seeing above that, I'd be inclined to look into mitigation.
I'm not an expert but I've read enough to know this is not a serious concern. If you were to see a reading above 2.6 pCi/L from a one-time test, that would be more concerning, but what I'm actually seeing is occasional jumps above 2.6 pCi/L that last less than a day from continuous monitoring. We're talking events that last on the order of hours for a few days a year... I can open a damn window. The vendor for my sensor recommends taking action if the level is above 4 pCi/L for an entire month, but for me it's barely above 2.6 pCi/L at all. In some months neither sensor ever gets above that.
I think on the contrary if you have a tendency to worry too much things like continuous monitoring systems might not be the best thing for your mental health. I actually was pretty worried since I'm a mild hypochondriac and a friend told me that they got obsessed with CO2 monitoring after getting one. Thankfully for me it has mostly been an occasional curiosity since there's nothing too concerning.
There's an esphome config for them and esphome let's you set a password. I believe it supports encryption but I can't remember.
The faikins are really awesome. I have mine set up in Home Assistant and I have automations for them to do stuff to turn off if the outdoor and indoor temps are both pleasant. I also have it set up to turn off if any of my windows or exterior doors are left open for more than five minutes. But you can program them to do so much. The stock firmware does mqtt so it's quite versatile.
These things are great, I've managed to get them into all my indoor units without too much trouble. If you've already got them integrated into Home Assistant check out Versatile Thermostat (you can find it in HACS), if you've got temp sensors in the rooms with your AC you'll get very good target temperature tracking, much better than the auto functionality built into Faikin.
That sounds nice, but don't rent to your friends. I've been there and it sucks. Everything works great until someone hits the hard times and the resource imbalance between parties gets amplified. You're either going to end up trashing friendships and dealing with the emotional baggage, making a really poor business decision or both.
Rent to people you're comfortable evicting/taking legal action against if things sour and then if you're so inclined, help your friends out by subsidizing outings/entertainment etc.
“When you loan money to a friend, be prepared to lose the money or the friend” is a maxim I’ve lived by and has guided me through some tough decisions over time.
The permitting in PDX is very permissive if you do the work yourself. You don't need to build a second house - you can essentially stand up a large shed and do some pretty basic work to finish it into a studio apartment.
Alternatively, the tiny home bubble has popped, and you can buy a used, pre-built tiny home and just park them on your property.
I'd rather get 10% off automatically instead of 15% off if I have to spend 30 minutes on every single purchase trying dozens of dead codes from various sites. It being automated is the entire point.
I have an older Delta table saw and recently decided to sell it because a miter saw + track saw + some other tools you need anyhow does nearly everything a table saw would do, but uses space way more efficiently.
My table saw is space efficient because I also use it (covered) as a table in the middle of my small shop, sometimes to support work I cut with a track saw. And I added a router table to the extension, which just disappears as part of the table. It's a space dense with utility.
