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Updated 4 / 2019

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Our Wedding Photo (11-9-99)

David & Tia Rich (2000)

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David Rich is the hands-on owner of Copper-By-Design. A talented designer and fabricator of custom copper sheet-metal. Mostly rain management products for clients across the Nation through:
http://copper-by-design.com

For local clients he is still a residential rain-gutter replacement contractor for the Portland, Oregon Metro area specializes in low-maintenance gutters with a 15 year no-clog warranty through:
http://dmr-gutters.com

Tia worked with him full time for a couple years. She trained as a Social Worker, Registered Nurse, Reiki Healer, Tantrica, Doula, Teaching birthing classes & parenting, Hypno-birth, Herbologist, Placenta Encapsulation, CranioSacral, Massuse, Midwife, and other therapies through her web site http://inner-serenity.org

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David was born Aquarius in Sacramento, California.  The middle child of five, born on 1/30/63. His family moved to Utah when he was just 6. Located right between Salt Lake City and Ogden. Of course he was raised strictly Mormon, but has since worked to shed his original programming.

His parents divorced when he was 12 and his Father moved back to Portland Oregon, where his parents had raised him.   David visiting his Father at 15 decided to call Portland home in 1978:
(a) the Northwest is much greener,
(b) the summers are not as hot,
(c) the winters are not as cold,
(d) the people are a lot more open minded (inner-city),
(e) he was destined to find his Soulmate here in 1998.

This is nearly paradise here in the Great Northwest; where we have clearly defined seasons, yet no extremes. He left the LDS church in his late teens, but remained spiritual, respectful to women, and not into alchohol or other substance abuse.

Over the years he gradually realized a strong connection with his Celtic Pagan Spiritual Heritage to honor our Great Mother Gaia (Earth). Down on organized religion of any kind. Spirituality is a very personal thing about connection to your divine, and need not conform to anyone else's ideas. As fast as you can try to describe it, you have misrepresented it with those seto of words. Think feeling.

What else is needed?

David attributes a good deal of his talents and aptitudes from his family. His Grandfather: John William Rich who was a brilliant inventor.  His Father: William Dale Rich (12/33 - 3/06) was a natural born mechanic and salesman who ran a successful health products business through http://www.billrich.com.  David's Mother: Carolyn Ann Collins enjoys many creative artistic endeavors.  David was tested to have a very high aptitude for math, spatial arrangement, and mechanical comprehension.

One of my 1972 Honda 600'sDavid worked at his Father's auto shop in early 1981, and was a self taught auto mechanic by years end.  He specialized in the very small cute 1971-72 Honda 600 cars (pre-Civic), and had customers referred to him by all three Honda dealerships in the area, because they no longer wanted to service those early Honda cars.  By late 1982, he had around 75 full engine over-hauls under his belt at the age of 20.  He eventually found it impossible to continue working for his Father at Rich's Repair and had to leave the business, since his father owned the tools he used and was not paying him for the work he did.  He then began his self-training in construction, but for some odd reason the Honda 600 car web page had remained one of the most popular web site he had authored into the 2000's.

Here's his long list of jobs in order, with several similar jobs combined.
1) Pumped gas at Dad's Texaco early 70's, Texaco mid to late 80's, & Chevron early 90's,
2) Door to Door Sales X-Mas Cards, Seeds, & Photo Processing
3) Paper Boy for a couple newpapers,
4) Dishwasher at Ann's Crossroad Cafe,
5) Worked at several burgar joints: Herfy's, Burgar King, Artic Circle, & Wendy's,
6) Concession at 5 theaters,
7) Prop Maker of a life-size Darth Vader,
8) Auto Mechanic at my Dad's Shop & on my own,
9) Pizza Cook & Delivery at Dominos & Roundtable,
10) Photographer,
11) Parking Lot Attendant at Ione Plaza & Ron Tonkin Acura,
12) Quilter,
13) Loudspeaker Design,

14) Fred Meyers Deli,
15) Constuction Worker for a General Contractor,
16) Handyman,
17) Labor Ready day laborer,
18) Gutter Contractor for 27 years and counting,
19) Coppersmith design and fabtication 16 year so far
20) Gutter Installation Business Training Program

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David out in front of our Lake Oswego home (2/07)

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Self portrait 2006

Her birth name is Tina Ellis, or as she is affectionately known as:  Lady TiaTia was born Aries/Taurus on the cusp in Santa Clara California on 4/20/66.  She was raised as an only child, but she has several older siblings on her Father's side.  Tia was raised in Vista, California.

She was raised in a much more open minded home, where she was able to explore any avenue of education and spirituality she chose.  She was introduced to the Pagan beliefs by the Mother of a close friend.  This felt right to her, but she continues to leave her options open and enjoys the study different theologies.  Tia had studied many a faith, but has been drawn more towards a classic Celtic Spirituality, which centers around an Earth based respect of our great Mother Gaia, which predates the mith of Adam and Eve.

She has been a sensitive as long as she can remember; seeing and communicating with spirits. She is trained as a Reiki Healer, Tantrica. She got her degree in Hypnotherapy (2005), hypno-birthing, Doula, and a licensed Midwife (2011), along with several other therapies through her business web site:

http://inner-serenity.org

Early in Tia's first marriage she had followed her Parents up here to Corvallis Oregon in early 1989, where she resided until December of 1998.  She had landed a position at the Children's Farm Home working with trouble young men for 5 years, and later decided to get her degree as an RN (before we had met), following in the foot steps of her Mother. She worked professionally as a Nurse for a few years, and decided to set that aside to work with me for a few years before starting her own business to follow her passion as a Healer/Midwife.

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David and Tia Rich
David & Tia at the Oregon Country Fair (2004)

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David & Tia both had always loved the concept of finding one's Soulmate, but did not hold out much hope that we would be fortunate to have and find that special someone.  On 10-1-98 Tia, contacted David via the Internet, from his sarcastic ad placed on a dating web site called: match.com, where they had both decided to take advantage of a 7-day free trial period.  They had a story book romance.  They are here to report to you that dreams can come true.  We truly believe that we have found our Soulmates in each other.  We said our vows to each other and exchanged gold rings just 2 weeks after that first e-mail.  Here are a few inspiring words written by Lady Tia  in November of 98, about Soulmates, and our joyous rediscovery of each other.  We find that we have a great deal in common and qualities we respect in each other.  We find each other to be very honorable, intelligent, wise, fun, and funny.  It may not be a completely smooth sailing, but our life together is a joyful bliss to finally have a best friend and partner to share our life with in this wonderfully healthy relationship.  She inspires him to learn to live life and love, and do what he always hoped to do with his life.  We can only hope you are at least half as happy and fulfilled.

We had acquired several domain names for web site content, that we add to occasionally:

dmr-gutters.com
copper-by-design.com
inner-serenity.org
mind-temple.com

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Hotter than ever New Years Eve (2006)

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David RichRunning our own businesses is a lot like riding a wild horse, without being able to get off and take a rest.  We not only have to hang on as best we can, but keep on pushing forward.  There's no going back to punching a time clock for us.  It often requires long days, but we love having the control of what kind of high quality standards are used.

David worked as an employee for a general contractor that has long since been out of business.  He got his feet wet performing nearly all aspects of construction work and compiled his stock of tools and machinery.  He hated working under their set of low standards and how they would deceive their clients.

David spent a year or so as a handy man, or a "jack of all trades", but the CCB highly encourage contractors to specialize; in order to improve the quality of their work and be able to bid more efficiently. This increases the likelihood of a small business surviving the ails of under bidding, or over bidding and not making sales.  He decided to specialize in sheet metal rain-gutter fabrication, and has striven to become one of the finest gutter installers in the country. This work specializing in sheet metal work gradually evolved into the custom copper work he does for clients all across the country through Copper-By-Design. We've had a few clients outside the USA, but freight and duties make that prohibitive.

  • DMR Gutters & Copper-By-Design is held in the highest regard by those who know of our work.  I have built up the most comprehensive web site for rain management in the world.  My suppliers report that I am the only local contractors who consistently buys the better materials.

  • I made demands on my suppliers to stock better supplies for my clients than they had  been.

  • My suppliers have referred me out to do some of the finest or most complex custom sheet metal work, like on the Canyon Rd. Street of Dreams project in the late 90's, working on the largest house that year. I've had clients as far as Ohio pay to have me install copper gutters on their home.

  • I have maintained work standards that are well above building code, and far above that which is standard.

  • I have been known to be quite rigid with regard to our high standards, or I will refuse work.

  • I have had the honor of being received as a finalist for the Better Business Bureau's Business Integrity Award for the year 1997, 1998, and also as recent as 2018 , and have this lovely glass trophy to show for it (shown below).

  • I am very fortunate to have been able to maintain a living while adhering to these high business ethics.  If I am unable to maintain these high standards of ethics then it will be time to find a different profession. I prove it can be done, while making a reasonable living. I may never get 'Rich' (other than my last name), but that should be no-one's goal in life.

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Night-out on the town (8/04)

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Tia is the Mother, of two adorable children named Trace & Micaela White from her first marriage, and there is our boy named Torrin Rich, who came 5 weeks early to be born on Halloween day.

Trace White
Prince Trace Adam White
w/the Mother of his child
Micaela White
Princess
Micaela Ryan White

Squire Torrin Alex Zander Evan Rich
or Tazer for short 9/08

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Here is David's three daughters from his first marriage. You are also welcome to visit his family photo page.

Hope Rich
Porsha Lea Rich, Ceair Carry Despra Talea Rich, Hope Lezly Rayzanna Alexzandria Rich
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This is our current home/workshop in Sherwood since 12/19
Home and work shop in Sherwood, Oregon
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For a decade this was ourhome in SW Portlandin SW Portland from 7/09 to 12/19
(We had to move after our Landlord tried to jack our rent up another 50%)
Home and work shop in Portland, Oregon

For a couple years this was our home and workshop from 7/07 to 7/09
(We had to move closer into town for Tia's Midwifery apprenticeship)
Home and work shop in Eagle Creek, Oregon

Work Vehicle and 3 trailers

My work shop

This was our home in Lake Oswego from 11/03 to 7/07
(We had to move when the property was sold out from under us to a developer, who packed in 11 houses there)

This is the house with the workshop in the foreground
with the gutter machine trailer in white to the right

Here is the back yard of that 2+ acres place in the summer

w/fenced off pen & small barn I made for our 2 pygmy goats


This is the front circle drive area w/the other 2 trailers

Autumn

(Our Landlord sold her Family home she had grown up in to a developer who just tore it down
not long after I had installed new lifetime gutters. It took those developers several years
to buid any houses there, because of the recession)

Winter


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The Clackamas House 2000 to 2001
(We had to move when the property was sold out from under us, even though the sale fell through)

The NW Keiser House 1999 to 2000 (recent pic 2019)
(We had to move when the property was sold out from under us to a developer, who packed in 7 more houses here)

SE Portland house from 1992 to 1999,
where I was living when Tia & I first met
(after the restoration work 2018)

(pic in 2007 before restoration)
(We had to move to get a lager place for our 5 kids)

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David having fun at a Halloween party 06

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My Spirituality is represented here in this graphic art form:

 (predates Nazi or even Christian cross symbolism,
and has been used to represent Firefighting as well)
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The painting I contracted for a large 26" drum head:

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Here is my first tattoo - Celtic Cross design (11/04)
The wings represent: The 4 Elements
Large ring: Sun
Small ring: Moon
Center: 5th Element-Spirit

And here is David's tribal chest tattoo before the red drop shadow was added (1/07)

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These 12" wide drums were painted by a friend named John Rigby
Ph# 503 544 1865

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Here is this Celtic cross symbol even more elaborately painted on
the head of my large 26" wide bodhrain drum

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We may not be able to change the world, but as an absolute rule; we must do no less than what we would hope to get from others, regardless of what we do in fact receive!  Without these ethics, we have no right to even hope to receive any better from others, let alone expect it. If we do not want to live in a world of deceit and corruption, we need to make sure we are not adding to that muck!

You can read some more thoughts on our personal philosophies on our philosophy web pages.

To the Art PageDavid had maintained a silly fan Web Site about an old PC game called To jezzball.com for several years.  It is a computer game from Microsoft, which I played as a stress reliever (or generator). The Web Site is a bit wacky and irreverent, but if you have a sense of humor, you should have a lot of fun!
There are a lot of inside jokes that may be missed if you don't know the game.  It had been very popular, but it's pretty dead these days.

If you like Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Art, you can also check out our Art Collection Page. Have fun!

 

Helpful Roofing Information
For some valuable advice with regards to roofing and rain management issues check out our:

(a) Gutter Installation
(b) Gutter Debris Protection Options
(c) Roofing Quality Standards
(d) Chimney Flashing

(e) Moss Control & Treatment

web pages for answers and solutions that could save you thousands of $ and a great deal of anguish.

If you do find this information very helpful, feel free to send us a $ tip for the assistance we so freely have published on the web here for your benefit, like you might tip a waitress.  Heck, send us a gift certificate for a candle lit dinner for two.

 

Below is a photo of our
Better Business Bureau's
NW Business Integrity Award
for the year 1998

1999 Better Business Award

We were also a 1997 finalist for this same award. See our referral web page to see how we managed to be honored with this special award

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