Help required with loft studio conversion

Hi everyone First I’ve got to say that this is a really great forum. I’ve spent much of the last 3-4 months pouring through the thousands of posts, and have picked up a lot of interesting info and tips. My grateful thanks to you all… Also, I’m a complete newbie to the whole forum thing, and this is my first post ANYWHERE! Please be kind to me ;-) I’m looking at re-locating my little studio within our house, and would REALLY appreciate some advice. I’ve looked at almost every post, and have yet to find anything similar to mine? My background is this: I’m a full-time NZ singer-songwriter-guitarist who for the last decade or so has been based in Europe, initially in London, and since 2000 in Germany. I currently live in Darmstadt, which is 25km south of Frankfurt. My music’s direction comes under the broad umbrella of Roots-Rock/Americana. You can check out my website (http://www.mikebrosnan.com) for some MP3 samples… I currently have a small studio set-up in the basement, but as is the case with many such arrangements, the main problem there is the low ceiling height, which in my case is 7 feet. And the rooms are pretty small as well. I recorded my last album in the house, but for the duration of the project took over the living room, which is a decent size, and it worked well with the addition of portable baffling, some of which was quite "creative..." However, despite the infinite goodwill of my wife, such an arrangement can only be temporary. I’m now looking at converting an upstairs room into a full-time studio. My reason for looking at this is that whilst it is upstairs (With all the associated problems getting heavy gear into it) it’s much larger, and despite having sloping ceilings, it has a lot more headroom. And the light's a lot better there too. The floor is concrete, and the walls plaster over concrete block. The ceiling is 4 inch tongue-in-groove, and I believe there’s fibreglass insulation between the ceiling and the roof. There’s two windows set into the roof also. The will be replaced in the coming summer and I will look at a better way of soundproofing them then. And as the room is at the corner of the house, there’s a hip in the centre of the room. the roof-ceiling line is quite complicated, to say the least. There’s also a walk-in closet that, if necessary, could be emptied out and used as a vocal booth. So, what do I want to use the studio for? OK: I need a studio for songwriting and recording demos, as well as for any tracking and mixing I may do for future albums. I do not see this as a commercial studio, but principally for my own use, plus MAYBE that of a few friends. There are neighbours on two sides, with one approximately 15-20m away (This neighbour has no windows facing our house) and the other 35-40m. The rear of the house overlooks a forest. Given the moderate level I work at, plus the fact that we are recording a drum kit only infrequently, there are no real noise issues. Indeed the living room sessions were probably a lot louder, and created no problems. Most of my tracking is acoustic instruments and vocals. Before the last big project we advised our neighbours that there could be a bit of noise, and then canvassed them afterwards. Most didn’t notice a thing, and 1-2 said they knew something was happening, but could really pick anything out. I’m comfortable with the construction techniques I expect will be required, and will bring in an electrician for any power wiring. Budget, well I guess whatever it takes, with an initial working budget of 1000-1500 Euro And advice on whether the conversion is feasible, and design would be VERY welcome. I've attached some PDF's. Yeah, along the way I taught myself the basics of SketchUp, and I trust the diagrams work ok...? OK, I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, Mike

Mike - it would be easier for us if you posted the sketchup file. cheers john

HEY, that was QUICK!! Oooops, sorry. I did say I was a neophyte... ;-) Here's the files Thanks, Mike