Just bought a house.. planning the eventual addition

Whooo Hoooo. Just bought a house in Seattle. THere's a boatload of houses with basements, but I didn't get one. There is enough space in the backyard to do something in the future so I thought I'd ask some questions. I've been lurking here for at least a year, but haven't posted yet. The wife's letting me build a studio in the backyard in the woodchip area of the attached picture. The space is 36x22, though we'll want some space around it, so I imagine I'll have to work with an area of (10'-15')x(15'-30') or so. Anyone have any suggestions as to what they would do? I'd love to build it underground so I could have an underground tracking room and an above ground control room, but somehow I imagine doing that much digging will cost way too much $$$. I'm also more interested in a band/rehearsal room than a pure studio. I work somewhere with a great mixing station so I don't mind if I only track at home. I'd like to put in windows and other things to make it look nice, but if it's going to cost way more I can always leave them out. Anyone have a ballpark figure on building a tall ceiling barn-like structure on a 15x20 plot? I have no idea what this stuff costs. I'm willing to do some work myself, but I am in no way a qualified carpenter, so I'm probably going to have someone do most of the work. $2k? $10k? $20k? Any ideas?

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on your new home! :mrgreen: Before going much further, I would suggest that you look into your options from a building/zoning point of view first. Find out what kinds of limitations may apply to your situation. There is probably a minimum distance between whatever structure you build and your property line (setbacks). There may be limits to how large the structure can be, in height and in square footage. You may be prohibited from including certain features, such as plumbing. There may be easements that could prevent you from putting a structure in a particular part of your parcel. :? This is generally the best place to start. It's better to know what (if any) those limitations are before getting your mind and heart set on a particular plan that, for one reason or another, is impossible from a municipal point of view. Don't assume that just because a neighbor has a shed or building in a similar position as what you want to build means that you'll be able to do so. Sometimes others have the benefit of a grandfather clause that permitted them to build, whereas you might not have that benefit. Or, perhaps it was built without a permit at all! :shock: (And, no, building such an elaborate thing without a permit isn't a viable option... Not unless you are willing to risk being fined many times the amount of the permit fees and be ordered to tear it all down too!) There are some basic "per square foot" cost estimates on the board... Personally, I'm betting that your total cost would be more towards the upper end of your range, and that's without luxury frills. But, I'm not the authority on that. :roll: FYI, you may want to check out my thread on the construction forum. Although your project differs from mine in a lot of ways, there are some similarities, and you may benefit from some of the lessons I've been learning over the past few months. Best of luck to you on your project, and congratulations again on your new home. 8) --Keith

Thanks for the kind words. I definitely will find out what's possible and legal for me. Ideally, the standing structure could serve as a mother-in-law when I sell the place. I'm really hoping it's not ridiculously expensive to build a basement type unit because then my soundproofing on 3 sides would be free. I'm having a hard time imagining I can afford that though. I'm totally clueless as to the cost though. I'm hoping I can make a servicable band room for around $10k, but since I'm probably going to contract it.... ouch.. The wife's giving me a bedroom for now which is cool, but even then I'm not even sure my drum kit is going to survive the move. The bedroom's only 16x9 and a kit would take up probably a third of it. So sad.

sharward wrote:

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on your new home! :mrgreen: Before going much further, I would suggest that you look into your options from a building/zoning point of view first. Find out what kinds of limitations may apply to your situation. There is probably a minimum distance between whatever structure you build and your property line (setbacks). There may be limits to how large the structure can be, in height and in square footage. You may be prohibited from including certain features, such as plumbing. There may be easements that could prevent you from putting a structure in a particular part of your parcel. :? --Keith

sleepwalker wrote:

I'm totally clueless as to the cost though. I'm hoping I can make a servicable band room for around $10k, but since I'm probably going to contract it.... ouch..

Ahhh, you must not have read the contractor horror stories here yet! :shock: Seriously -- 98% of contractors think they know enough to do your project, but in reality, probably <1% actually do. That's not to slam contractors carte blanche, but this is really specialized stuff and most of them don't have an appreciation of how sound actually behaves. And in all seriousness, I don't think it's possible to hire this out for <$10K.

The wife's giving me a bedroom for now which is cool, but even then I'm not even sure my drum kit is going to survive the move. The bedroom's only 16x9 and a kit would take up probably a third of it. So sad.

No way! My drum kit only takes up about 2.5' x 5' of floor space! Oh, wait -- that's because it's stacked in the corner of my office in gig bags. :cry: :cry: :cry: :evil: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Now I'm wondering if it's just a better idea to add onto the house. My house is basically a rectangle and I can just extend the end of it to create another living room. I can then build a room within that room. This would probably cost less than a from scratch free standing structure as well as add value to the house. Maybe adding another story would be a better idea. I've got an attic/master BR conversion, but the ceilings are very slanted and low. Maybe I could turn that MBR into a family room/studio and add another floor with a barn type roof for more headroom. I'd love to pay a professional in Seattle to just look at my place and let me know my options. As it is I'm pretty ignorant to the situation.

sleepwalker, ground floor is going to be your best bet, because isolation construction is VERY heavy and you are going to be very limited on how much weight (therefore how much isolation) you can have dan :)