Mystery Machine studios - 3-Room basement studio project

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:lol: ". . . mildly terrifying . . ." :lol: Great progress! Congratulations! The concrete work look like it's coming along really nicely. :-) --Keith :mrgreen:

1.13.07 - Update Happy New Year! So almost too much has happened to put it under any one tidy marker... So far we're done with 99.9% of the plumbing upgrade, the HVAC and ducting is almost completed, 90% of the framing is done and the stairs started to go in late last night. ADT will be by today to get their security wiring roughed in before the softing gets knocked out for the rather large series of ducts they're putting up gets installed. The drain system got some good testing over the last month or so as the rains began around here and also a gutter got clogged and dropped gallon after gallon of water onto the side of the house. It was fateful in that it exposed some weaknesses in the system that they needed to work on some more. Rains post-fixes haven't dented it, so that's encouraging. The mud room that's being appended to the rear of the house is also completely dried in and looks great. It really achieved the goal of blending into the existing structure nicely. The roofing will hopefully gets knocked out this week if the weather allows. Interesting/exciting things to note: -The large cast iron drain pipe that was jutting into the space downstairs was taken care of and is almost flush to the wall. A small ceiling soffit is all that will be noticable in the space when finished. -The flex ducting that I was so concerned about is in, for better, for worse. Their solution for avoiding the noise caused by kinking induced by straps + gravity is to not use straps to keep the ducts in place. Instead they're going to soffit the ducts into place next to one another. Their goal is to uniformly pancake the ducting under the soffit and to keep them all straight and flat. Hopefully this will minimise any noise that might occur from air hitting irregularities in the duct's shape... I think that's it for now. I'll now post a boatload of pics to let the story tell itself... Thanks!

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Just wanted to chime in as I am using the same HVAC equip in my studio renovation including two high end apartments. I am using the Tempstar heat pumps but the Comfort-R variable speed two stage furnace is a dream. Good for sound as the fan starts up slow. Good luck on the project. You are moving along fast. wish I could do the same :( -ashlye

Wow! I'm speechless! Please don't leave us hanging again! We want the play-by-plays! 8) Nice work. That concrete in the basement came out really nice. :) --Keith :mrgreen:

Ah shucks, thanks Sharwood:) Question of the day: New electrical Panel install Tomorrow is the switch in power service/panel upgrade and my contractor and I got to talking about how best to deal with the fact that the panel is going to be (and has to be) accessible in the in the live room. My concern is 1) creating a hole in the lovely 2 sheets of 5/8ths sheetrock and also 2) having something that can resonate and cause noise in the space. My contractor was thinking we'd move forward with the same principals used in sealing up individual electrical outlets - no air gap on the sides, plup up any gaps in the box, rockwool against the back of the panel box, etc... Are there any special suggestions you guys might have to make this work? Visually speaking, I think we're going to mount a Real Trap "Mini Trap" over it so it won't be an eyesore. Lighting Electrical is roughed in and so we went through the specifics of lighting. I'm once again going beyond my initial budget, but I don't think I can skimp on lights. Basically we're going to have a combo of cans for general lighting in the middle of the rooms, some track lights for hitting various parts of the space to the sides (racks, amps, ambient lighting off walls, etc.) and some sconces in the space to hit spaces where a track is overkill and there are soffitts that won't allow for a can. We're going with a switched system with lots of switch options as opposed to any kind of faders. All lights will be transformerless. If anyone has any suggestions of solid manufacturers for track systems I'd love to hear them. That's about it for now. If anyone has any suggestions about the questions above I'd really appreciate the feedback. Thanks!

1.24.07 Update Electrical is almost completed and the inspection is tomorrow. Power service upgrade is done, the new panel's in as is the Star ground setup and box. Lighting has been chosen and all boxes are in place. Lighting is going to consist of a combo of sconces, tracks and cans throughout the 3 spaces. The cans have been sheetrocked around to help with any sound leakage issues as much as possible. Insulation should start at the end of the week then another inspection which will be followed by sheet rock next week hopefully. Windows and doors should also be done in the next week and a half, so the space will start to feel like a real room shortly... That's it for now. Thanks!

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Update - 1.29.07 Insulation completed: The insulation brigade came through today and tore it up downstairs in a really good way. Tomorrow comes the inspection of the work and then Wed. the sheetrock begins and I think finishes. Things are kind of flying along all of a sudden. Very exciting. The other really exciting aspect of today was that the walls took shape for the first time and you can really see the shape of the rooms and the iso-booth window, etc... It also sounds really nice and quiet down there now. It also just feels comfy, even with exposed insulation. I'll take that as a good sign:) I need to start thinking about cool stuff like paint colors for all of the room and other more esoteric little items like that. Pics below. Thanks!

Great build IP, nice house too! I don't mean to jump into your post, but I have a request! Could you show some detail pix of the double wall assembly door? Did you decide if your going to go with two doors or just one from the start? I'm going through that shortly and would specifically like to see how your handling the threshold. Did you end up getting interior or exterior doors? With or without seals and thresholds? In my moch-up, i've noticed that the dual thresholds create this weird space in the doorway on the floor. I'm not sure what I should do with it. my doors are exterior grade, and have come with thresholds attached, I'm thinking I should possibly detach the stock thresholds, and replace them with a solid wood threshold? Does this make sense? Can I place cherry on a cement floor, I've used presure treated everywhere else for sill plates to gaurd against moisture, so won't this be an issue too? I'm not 100%, but i don't recall this particular detail being covered in Rods book. Thanks! kevin

How many layers of drywall are you going to install on the walls and ceiling? If more than one, you're probably going to have to "step out" those switch and outlet boxes so that the face of the box is flush with the finished surface of the wall. Will you be using putty pads on the boxes to mitigate noise leakage and increase their fire resistance? Where's that new electrical panel? Won't that be a hole in your isolation, being recessed like that? --Keith :mrgreen:

2.4.07 Update I wanna rock The first layer of sheetrock went in this week and has been taped and puttyed up. Doublewall will be added to the exterior wallsand I'm thinking it would make sense to hit the walls between the iso-booth and the live room as well. The ceiling will also be a double layer of rock, but I'm sad to loose the ceiling height. The space feels about perfect right now and the addition of the extra layer of rock and the future sub-floor and flooring will eat away at even more of the height... Compromise continues. Sandledfoot We're not doing any double doors, so I'm not sure what to tell you about your threshholds. We had considered it in the mechanical room but then the HVAC went back into the crawlspace and the doubledoors felt like overkill... I'm sure someone else here will have wisdom to share with you though. Sharward My contractor has been making space/accounting for the extra rock on some of the walls, so those points should have been addressed. We're shooting to recess the panel slightly so we can put a nice finished wood cover over it to make it purdy. On the rear of the panel they used one of two peices of rock to seal up the rear of it. I don't think they used putty packs though. I'll check in with my contractor about it to see what exactly was done. He'd been taking the holes in the box and the peircing of the layers into consideration though, so hopefully his solutions will suffice... Mucho pics below.

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Greetings Lee I was skimming through some of your thread and had a couple of questions to ask you concerning your construction... 1.) In your initial plans/suggestions you mentioned this in your HVAC: "-Use low turbulence supply and return openings. Many standard grills are noisy". What type of grills are you using? Got a link to the manufacturer? 2.) You stated later in your thread you had the "star grounding" done for your outlets. If you don't mind me asking, how much did this cost you? 3.) On the 1.24.07 update is the star ground box located right under the breaker box? Is this also the last pic in that post also? 4.) Is the 3rd picture of a recessed lighting assembly sealed in drywall? Your studio is looking EXCELLENT! This is one of my favorite threads as you are very detailed and organized. Thanx for the time you put into writing and making it easier for the rest of us out here!

Lee, Just had DMS drywall over to get a quote. He said they was doing another studio in Portland and I wondered if it was yours. It was actually nice to be able to talk to someone that knew what needed to be done. If it is you any problems w/DMS? Another guy I had over today needed pictures all the way through. Probably wont use him Tom

2.20.07 Update Drywall is completed, painting has begun, exterior doors and windows are in!!! Yeehaw. It almost looks like a habitable space now. The drywall took forever, but it's cold and wet around these parts and that's not a great formula for quick curing of mud evidently. Things are looking good though and the first coats of paints are going on downstairs. I've had to make my decisions re: colors for the space and I went with a fairly mellow and warm color called Devine paints called "Sand" and I'll be doing one accent wall in the live room and the control space that's a warmer red-ish color, but not very bright. I'm still trying to figure out the color for the booth. It's small and the natural light is slight, so I don't want to make it a cave. Tomvan It might have been DMS or perhaps not. My contractor has been on top of all of the crews, so I'm sort of out of the loop. Regardless, these guys were the least on top of it of anyone who's worked on the project so far, so you might ask for clarification about the space they worked on. Mine's a pretty small space. I know a friend of mine is also building on Hawthorne at the moment and that's a lot more serious than this one, relatively speaking... camistan I'm not sure what grills are going to be used. Again, the plans called out for certain things and the contractor is just knocking them out. I can take a gander though and I'll see what I can find out. Re: star grounding, yes, those pics are of the box directly below the main panel. Re: specific costs for it, I got a more general number for all of the electrical work some time ago that didn't really itemize the specifics for the star ground system. I imagine it wasn't inexpensive since it take a fair bit of extra time... Lastly, yes, that's one of the light assemblies in the drywall encasements they made. They're all sealed up now, but they're up there somewhere:) I'm gotta run, but here's some new pics as of today. Be well-

Hey Lee (and TomVan), I'm thinking about maybe taking a leisure trip up to Portland one of these months... Maybe in the summertime. If I do, I hope I'll be able to see your places in person, because they're looking awesome!! 8) --Keith :mrgreen:

Lee, I think he said the guys name was Eric. (that DMS was doing) But when I got on to check your thread old age took over and couldn't remember for sure. Lee & Keith..... Grand opening soon. Sheet rockers are scheduled for Monday. My guy said two days to hang two layers. They are bringing heaters warm it up. Looking great Lee. It must feel nice to get paint on the walls Tom