Day 97

Another month has gone by, time for an update. The walls have gone up to full height and are now finished externally as well:

Attention has also been focussed on the roof. First a steel supporting beam went in to support an accoustic ceiling in the studio room:


And then another, bigger one to support the whole roof:
After that the roof timbers could be put up:



Batons and felt fixed:


And finally the tiled roof is complete.

Most of the work is on the inside now and this is where it will start to get more interesting (possibly). More news soon...

Day 67

It's taking a while but we're definitely making progress now...

Day 46

Gosh, where does the time go? We're overdue for an update, I think.

So, the building inspector was happy with a revised foundation plan, using mesh instead of fibres apparently, and the concrete raft was duly poured.


Then the first course of blocks could go in, marking out the shell of the build, followed by a layer of sand, damp proof membrane and insulation and finally more concrete.

Then we were ready to start building up.

Of course, nothing about this is going to be simple and we now have yet another issue holding things up. Hopefully we will resolve and move on tomorrow... (I wonder how many more times I'll be saying that before this is over?).

Day 22

So there we were, site cleared and ready to pour the foundations, when the building control inspector rejected our plan. OK, it lead to a bit of messing about and a rethink, but we're now back on course and should have the concrete down on Wednesday ready to start building, fingers crossed.


Meanwhile, the well is officially 53 feet deep and I'm trying to arrange with a proper climber to pop me down to have a look about. A brief video survey (i.e. a video camera on a piece of string) revealed some intriguing hints... Was that a hand print on the wall? A scrap of cloth on one of the beams? A curved, iron-age cutting blade?

Keep watching for next thrilling episode. (BTW, I haven't forgotten this is supposed to be about a studio build but right now the well is by far the most interesting thing going on).

Day 14

2 weeks already, and it's been a rather eventful second week.

The building inspector's initial visit was fine, he's happy with our plans, so it was full steam ahead until we uncovered this hole...

Yep, it's a well, and rather old by the look of it.

I'm measuring it properly today but reckon it's about 45 feet deep and 4 and a half feet wide (that's 15m deep and 1.5m across), and it appears to have a live spring in the bottom which, if nothing else, must be good feng shui!

After an initial panic of "oh my god, the house is going to fall into the hole" and a visit from the structural engineer, who sees no major problem with it being there, I am now rather pleased with the find and am working out how to incorporate it into the floor of the studio.

Either that or scrap the studio idea and go into the bottled water business...

Day 9

Yesterday the toys arrived...


Still clearing the site...


Today we have the first visit from the council Building Control Officer, fingers crossed he doesn't complicate things.

Day 3

Planning delay sorted, we're back on track. Oh, hang on, it's chucking down with rain!

OK, maybe tomorrow...

Day 2

So, we're a day in and it's goodbye, old room. Unfortunately we have now hit a planning hold up so we've ground to a halt already. Shouldn't take too long to resolve though, watch this space...

So it begins

This blog will follow the progress of my new studio build. We've had planning permission for a while although getting everything in place since then has taken time, but as the sun is shining and the birds are singing it seems like a pretty good time to be knocking down the back of our house!

Updates will appear as and when anything interesting happens (and I use the word 'interesting' with caution; if you are not particularly interested in building, recording studios or acoustic design then there will probably not be very much interesting here at all) and will probably continue for three or four months, or however long it takes to get the thing done.

So, as we begin, here is what is making way for the new structure:


I think you'll agree it doesn't look too good at the moment. As I write this the roof is being taken off and holes knocked in the back wall so I'll be back later with an update and another photo or two. Trust me, it should get more interesting later on.