New business want to do it right

Hi folks... I hope I follow the rules below, if I did not give enough info please let me know and thanks in advance for the help.... :D Overview I have been working in studios freelancing for 10 years give or take. I am in a job outside of the industry right now and I am thinking of getting back into the game but this time opening my own place to do project work and some jingle stuff. I want to build a place were I can track and mix full bands with quality acoustics and comfortable surroundings (comfort and good vibes = good music). Me and my woman own a house in a residential area but from my understanding we can use a room in our house for private business (I am still researching the code for our burrow). I am thinking of building an addition on to our house so I am some what open with my design possibilities. Unfortunately I have a few obstacles to work around that limit my space. Due to some trees (that I was informed I can not move, go figure) and some design elements of the existing struture I am a little limited on the shape and size of my floor plan. More below. HOW LOUD Well as I said I am hoping to build a commercial studio so loud bands at 2:00 am is probably the norm here. My closest neighbor is about 200 feet away and we are on the corner of a quite street so noise is not a huge concern but it is something that I would like to factor into the design of course. As quite as possible with out breaking the bank as they say (I know this is the hard part). Construction Due to the proximity to the trees around the build area (not too close but close enough that a traditional footer would be a problem) a friend of mine who is an architect (I work in an architectural firm as an IT guy by the way) said the best solution would be to use a post foundation. The floor of the studio would be an inch or so off the ground in a few places supported by beams. I see a resonance problem but I was told it would be possible to use a cement slab for this, that should push the resonate freq down enough to not be a problem I would hope. Also due to the trees and the current house design I am limited to sort of L shape layout. I was told with the beam footer I could get away with using a brick design but wood frame would probably be cheaper. I am open to suggestions. Also because this would be a commercial facility I probably need to include a small bathroom in the plan. The outside load-in door must be on the far east wall probably under the landing for the steps. Dimensions See drawing. Not included on drawing, ceiling would end up between 8 and 9 feet in both rooms maybe a touch more but I doubt it will get over 9 1/2 feet. The 8 foot by 6 foot jog in the north west corner is to accommodate a window in the existing house, this can not change much or the window will look directly out on to a brick wall. Budget I am probably looking at around 30 to 40 grand total. I will be doing most of the work after the foundation posts so I hope to keep costs down a bit (I hope this is doable... good thing I have all the gear I need to start tracking already). Questions 1) Do I have enough room to work with comfortably here? I am not too good at eyeballing distances but the space "feels" about the right size to track a project in comfort. 2) I like live tracking rooms, larger the drum room the better. Taking that into consideration what would be a good start at setting up a drum room and a control room including a way to partition the two rooms? A small vocal / guitar booth would be nice as well, this could live off the far west wall if it had to but I would like to keep the total design to the layout below if I could. Again I am open to suggestions. 3) I have a little give and take with my sizes here, what room dimensions should I build to (that are close to what I have here) so I don't get into trouble with an odd size room? 4) What materials should I make the walls and floor out of and how much do you think this will effect cost? 5) Do I have a chance in hell of doing this close to my budget? Thank you so much for any help you can provide.

Hi all. I forgot to mention that he circles in the drawing above are the trees I was talking about in my post. Not sure if that was confusing anyone but wanted to clear that up. Anyone have any ideas for me? Did I post something wrong with my thread and no one is looking now? :D

I'm a bit confused - are those the exact walls or one's you envisage cos as they are they make it hard. cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

I'm a bit confused - are those the exact walls or one's you envisage cos as they are they make it hard. cheers john

Hi John, thanks for talking a look. The dark walls are a rough idea of what I can get away with because of the trees and existing building. The dotted lines are an existing wood deck that I would be taking down to build the studio. My friend (the architect) just put it there for me to have an idea to judge the size of the space from. The dark walls are not built yet, the foundation is not their either, it is just an idea of what I might be able to do. I may be able to make it a little larger or alter the shape if there is a better plan. Thanks again.

I assume you are trying to avoid trees etc. would this work on your site? cheers john

John Sayers wrote:

I assume you are trying to avoid trees etc. would this work on your site? cheers john

Hey John. Thanks. Yes that is an interesting idea for sure. A few things to ask about here. 1) The control room is a little close to the one tree in to the left. Not sure if I can do anything about that but it would be nice to be 5 to 10 feet from each tree. 2) I would like to stick a vocal booth and a guitar booth some place. Could be to the top left of the control room and maybe to the botton right? 3) I need to put a small wash room / bathroom to in the drum room on the far right (because of the sewer lines for the house). 4) At some point we are going to sell this house and I would like to covert this room into a A/V room for a home theater setup. Can you see that happen in this room as well? THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE HELP!

maybe turn it around like this

John Sayers wrote:

maybe turn it around like this

Very cool John. Any idea how to fit a bath room / wash room into the drum area on the far right wall?

maybe have a toilet and basin under the stairs? I've seen it done.