How to DIY a Home Studio

Big update today!!! Drum roll!!!!!!!!!!!!

0t8Ws5d.jpg


3 days later that's all my progress. COVID is kicking my butt, as is the Maryland Governor locking down travel - both are keeping me from going out to buy stuff! The good news is that I saw that coming, and before it happened I managed to put in two orders:
- Home Depot for an angle grinder (clean up existing flooring and tiles), 2x4s, PT lumber, etc (to get the new walls framed up)
- Lowes for the electrical supplies to re-run everything after the new walls are up

Home Depot blew off my delivery day (Tuesday), and after 2 hrs on the phone I finally got it rescheduled for tomorrow. They told me things were crazy now (which I understand), but had no reason for not even reaching out to me (unacceptable).
Lowes managed to deliver my stuff on time, but it's useless w/o the walls.

The only good part was that I DIDN'T put the orders together. Home Depot was showing some things unavailable for delivery, so I split it up to cover.

Anyway, that's the current status, hopefully I have more by the end of the weekend...
 
Ok, update time:

There's bad news, good news, and more good news.

Bad news: After sitting home all day, Home Depot screwed me and didn't show up AGAIN. Yup, two days last week they had delivery appointments, didn't show up at all, didn't call to let me know, and I had to call the next day for a status. They gave me the same BS when I called (we're really busy), and AGAIN told me that their process is a mess. "We didn't get all of our deliveries done yesterday, so we can put you back on the schedule in 7-10 days". When I ask why they don't just start today's deliveries with the ones that didn't get completed yesterday, they told me that they'd never catch up that way, and they didn't want to NOT make their deliveries that are scheduled today. #lesigh

Good news: They offered free use of one of their loaner trucks if I came and got it myself, plus a bit of a discount.

More good news: I didn't get arrested for driving around during lockdown. :D

So, some progress was had!!

Step one: remove old tiles that are in the way of new walls:

FjnkVAE.jpg


rVGT33K.jpg


jZKTNh1.jpg


Step two is finish cleaning up that old stuff, then remove a couple of tiles that were cut out for old walls. Once those are gone, I can throw down new ones.

Step three, hopefully this afternoon: Starting on the new walls, shooting nails (Literally).
LbGtewc.jpg
 
DougUSMC said:
Ok, update time:

There's bad news, good news, and more good news.

Bad news: After sitting home all day, Home Depot screwed me and didn't show up AGAIN. Yup, two days last week they had delivery appointments, didn't show up at all, didn't call to let me know, and I had to call the next day for a status. They gave me the same BS when I called (we're really busy), and AGAIN told me that their process is a mess. "We didn't get all of our deliveries done yesterday, so we can put you back on the schedule in 7-10 days". When I ask why they don't just start today's deliveries with the ones that didn't get completed yesterday, they told me that they'd never catch up that way, and they didn't want to NOT make their deliveries that are scheduled today. #lesigh

Good news: They offered free use of one of their loaner trucks if I came and got it myself, plus a bit of a discount.

More good news: I didn't get arrested for driving around during lockdown. :D

So, some progress was had!!

Step one: remove old tiles that are in the way of new walls:

FjnkVAE.jpg


rVGT33K.jpg


jZKTNh1.jpg


Step two is finish cleaning up that old stuff, then remove a couple of tiles that were cut out for old walls. Once those are gone, I can throw down new ones.

Step three, hopefully this afternoon: Starting on the new walls, shooting nails (Literally).
LbGtewc.jpg
Click to expand...

Someone is going to freak out when they see bare toes!
 
DougUSMC said:
Ok, update time:

There's bad news, good news, and more good news.

Bad news: After sitting home all day, Home Depot screwed me and didn't show up AGAIN. Yup, two days last week they had delivery appointments, didn't show up at all, didn't call to let me know, and I had to call the next day for a status. They gave me the same BS when I called (we're really busy), and AGAIN told me that their process is a mess. "We didn't get all of our deliveries done yesterday, so we can put you back on the schedule in 7-10 days". When I ask why they don't just start today's deliveries with the ones that didn't get completed yesterday, they told me that they'd never catch up that way, and they didn't want to NOT make their deliveries that are scheduled today. #lesigh

Good news: They offered free use of one of their loaner trucks if I came and got it myself, plus a bit of a discount.

More good news: I didn't get arrested for driving around during lockdown. :D

So, some progress was had!!

Step one: remove old tiles that are in the way of new walls:

FjnkVAE.jpg


rVGT33K.jpg


jZKTNh1.jpg


Step two is finish cleaning up that old stuff, then remove a couple of tiles that were cut out for old walls. Once those are gone, I can throw down new ones.

Step three, hopefully this afternoon: Starting on the new walls, shooting nails (Literally).
LbGtewc.jpg
Click to expand...
I'm seeing toes at the bottom of the third photo. Make sure you keep them.
 
HA!!! Good eyes everyone! I was definitely wearing sandals, but not to work.
You can tell best in the 2nd picture, but the floor is wet. I'd just finished cleaning up after the huge mess the grinder made, and I was wearing them for that, not the actual grinding!

Yesterday ended up being a decent day: Productive, but not as much done as I'd like. I was breaking up and removing old tiles that had been cut to fit the old wall shapes, and prepping for new tiles that will replace them. It was tough work!!

Step one is basically put a dropcloth over it, hit it with a hammer to break it up, the pull up the pieces with a prybar. What you're looking at is what's below the tile - the old adhesive, on top of a underlayment.
dbd9BXt.jpg

Next I clean up the adhesive a bit, so I can use a razor to cut that orange underlayment, and pull it up. Under that is more adhesive... :(
PiKnnso.jpg

The worst part is next: scraping up that adhesive to get back to the concrete slab. When that's all done, we've gone from this:
8BOmGrp.jpg

To this:
LiNb6kE.jpg


There's a bit of cleanup left there, but you get the idea. The cutouts have been completed for the new wall framing AND the rest of the floor is ready for new tile to go down.
It's backbreaking, slow, frustrating work, but it's almost time to BUILD now!
 
Made some great progress today. Since all of the floors were completed yesterday, it was time to throw up some walls!

I know, everyone just wants the pics...
Here's the before:
b1PsP0K.jpg

Now the After:

vrq41ya.jpg


As you can see, I framed up the opening from the old door on the right, and created the opening for the new door to the room. While that looks cool and all, it's really not the best part!
Most of today was spend re-routing the electrical wiring and switching for the room. I moved the 4 way for the hallway, added a 4 gang to support the room itself and brought power into it, moved the intercom system over to the new wall, and brought over circuits for the Wall of Amps and the two new lighting runs that I have planned.

All in, great day! Tomorrow I'm hoping to fix the ceiling over the old storage room and get the soffits put back to right.
 
DougUSMC said:
Made some great progress today. Since all of the floors were completed yesterday, it was time to throw up some walls!

I know, everyone just wants the pics...
Here's the before:
b1PsP0K.jpg

Now the After:

vrq41ya.jpg


As you can see, I framed up the opening from the old door on the right, and created the opening for the new door to the room. While that looks cool and all, it's really not the best part!
Most of today was spend re-routing the electrical wiring and switching for the room. I moved the 4 way for the hallway, added a 4 gang to support the room itself and brought power into it, moved the intercom system over to the new wall, and brought over circuits for the Wall of Amps and the two new lighting runs that I have planned.

All in, great day! Tomorrow I'm hoping to fix the ceiling over the old storage room and get the soffits put back to right.
Click to expand...
Excellent progress sir!
 
I completed the remaining framing today, with one 2x4 remaining. I'd LOVE to post some pics, if anyone could tell me why Imgur isn't allowing new pics to be uploaded?!?!?

EDIT: Now I'm getting an "Internal Server Error" when trying to post here. Starting to worry that it's me...
 
Last edited:
Ok, update time! Finally got Imgur working again, so time to catch up on current progress!

Short version: Framing is done! I may add a stud here or there, to make sure drywall installation goes easily, but I'm officially calling it done.

First the main entrance from the hall, last seen a couple of days ago. I took out two doors that were here originally: The one to the right to the (old, now non-existent) closet was framed in, and the main entrance had a double door removed in favor of a single 36" door:
AY5Lc5u.jpg


Next, the ceiling of the old closet and adjoining soffit needed to be reframed. The ceiling height was off ~ 2" between the two, likely due to laziness in framing around the mechanicals. Now it's one continuous plane across both rooms.
zqcDiu7.jpg


Lastly there was a closet on the other end of the room that I wanted to remove. This allowed me to make a Studio nook, where I can set up a desk and some newly-acquired recording gear to play a bit. Bringing out the adjoining wall served two purposes: Making that nook a bit deeper and letting me create a built-in shelving unit for more cool display storage in the room.
Dx9K4Ak.jpg


Finally, a couple of panoramic shots of the room showing current status.

The view from under the new ceiling, showing the left entrance wall, nook, and adjacent wall:
qT6MNIz.jpg


Now, the opposite corner, with my back to the desk:
qiILUDw.jpg


The room is really starting to come back together. The next task is to complete running all of the electrical outlets, new lighting, and adding a new ethernet drop.
 
Bill SAS 513 said:
Looks fantastic...I've never seen a black urinal quite like that black one there...
;):D
You'll be rockin' in no time!!!
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I was going to remove it, but now you have me re-thinking that decision... ;)

The former owner had the room set up as her salon, complete with the wash bowl and laundry closet on the other side of the room. We're not so high falutin' that my wife can't just go to the hairdresser herself, so I get a geetar room!

Also, working on some decorating ideas. I'm digging the idea of some nice wallpaper behind the guitars, which should look good with the LEDs shining down on it. I'm leaning towards the black on black, anyone care to vote for their favorite?

#1)
hgcJTlr.jpg


#2)
nNgqfD7.jpg


#3)
eeukgwg.jpg
 
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