Here are some pre-construction photos, to illustrate what I started with...
And its okay to say "eeeewww", I did.
Post sanding... while it looks funny and rough in the lighting, all surfaces are as smooth as silk. I started using an electric sander, but the kickup of dust was the worst, and it didn't really sand as smooth as I'd like and took a long time. A cheapie home depot sanding block did the job just fine. It has two sides, one rougher than the other, so you can remove material fast, then finish up with the less rough side for nice feathering:
Okay, time to start slapping up paint, moulding, and trim pieces. Its diffiicult to see my color choices... but the ceiling is super white, but a matte finish, the walls are a "hint of mint" green, though at first I felt it was a bit too minty, but its grown on me. The moulding and trim are a dark, rich looking green in high gloss.
Here is my vocal booth, i.e. flip floor over a stairwell. I'm putting down laminate flooring because its thinner, and lighter than true hardwood. The flip part (the right side in the pictures) weighs about 150lbs as it is, another 3/4" of true hardwood would make it almost impossible to lift. I will be installing a pneumatic assist, however I have some design work to do before I can actually finish that step. So for now, it requires a bit of grunt
Floor in the upright position, locked to prevent accidents. Because the flip floor is at true vertical, the vast majority of the weight is supported by the hinges, and the lock only has to support 5 lbs, 7 oz according to my tension gauge. This will not pull the lock apart. (Something I was worried about until I did a true measurement). You can't see down the dark area, but that's the stairwell, which leads to the outside of the house. I have two entrances, one outside, one to the rest of the house.
The beginnings of new lighting at about the middle of the stairwell. I'll be mounting a flush-mount 75W light in that hole, as to light the bottom of the stairwell a little better. I had dropped my cell phone down the dark stairs and spent 20 minutes looking for it with a flashlight, so the additional lighting will be welcomed. I've made a steel upside down "U" that will go across the light fixture, and not touch it, which will have an electrical box mounted with a UL normally closed switch, with a plunger sticking out of the top. When one opens the flip-floor, the light goes on. Close the floor, the light goes out. Since you can't come up the stairwell with the floor in the down position, this makes it easier and I didn't have to run another light switch. Why? Because I closed up the wall already and forgot to switch the feed at the bottom of the stairwell. ooops. So, this is considered acceptable according to code, since I'm using all UL stuff.
Video Preview station. Consists of a Lowes $44 TV mount, a DVD player I got free at Radio Shack ($50 for the unit, $50 rebate!), and a stereo TV I found at the curb a week ago. Actually, I found three TV's, two worked, one's in the picture and the other is now in our bedroom. The third one I kindly put back where I found it
Painting more moulding. Since I'm putting a hardwood floor down, I just paint right on the floor and not worry about it. When it dries, I just hit the area with a paint scraper for 20 seconds and all the little paint dots come right up.
Corner of the sofa cove... Nothing too exciting, but I was attempting to illustrate the color scheme a little better.... but alas, I guess my camera sucks
So, what's left. Lets see, moulding for the bottom of the walls, the doors facing the console room, the pneumatic flip-floor assist, the steel open frame console table (I have it laid out on the garage floor, clamped, ready to tack weld), some moulding around the producer's desk, the console room floor, and I guess start loading equipment and soldering together patch bays. Oh, yes, and pickup more "gooseneck" track lights ($9 a pop), pick out a nice sofa for the sofa cove, and wheel my leather console table chair in!!!![/QUOTE]