Working on the new studio at Kill Branch Farm

If you have a hankering to do more and spend more..... buy a farm.

It seems I spend money and time out there every time I go out there.

recap: we bought the 28.5 acre farm back in March. The long time occupant moved out at the end of June and we took full possession on July 1.

The place was filthy and that word doesn't begin to accurately portray how bad it was. We burned the house and cleared up the lot.

We added a 24x30 shop and started to rehab an old shed. We dug the well 100' deeper and had the old surface water sealed off. We're now getting a solid 20+gallons per minute from 150' down in bedrock. Cold clean, and tasty water from thousands of years filtered by rock. We also found the surface spring down the hill and the foundation of the old spring house.

My wife and I have signed the papers to get the process started towards putting a new 3 bedroom, open floor plan modular home on the old home site. Hopefully by the spring, we will be getting it installed and connected.

So... here's what I've been working on.

The old shed on the property was in bad shape. This is what it looked like. Rotted wood, siding falling off, wasps in it.




I asked my wife if she wanted it for a garden shed. She recommended that I fix it up and put my studio and office in it. We would be downsizing a bit on square footage in the new house so that made sense.



I pulled some siding off the old house before we burned it down and used that to repair the rotted siding. I added 2 windows on the south side facing the woods.



I installed 2 french doors that were found in the back of this shed. My wife picked the green color for the paint.



A neighbor sold me some tongue and groove pine boards, and I salvaged a bunch from inside the old house/cabin on the property. A friend helped me hang some sheetrock.... I installed wiring for power and internet.



And most recently, I rummaged through the many paint cans I had in storage under the laundry room sink. I found several colors that were close enough to the ones I wanted to make them work. In both cans, there was almost exactly enough to finish the ceiling in brick dust red and golden yellow on the walls.



Still more work to do... I'm planning to stain the wood on the window wall a darker color. (Walnut) and add a beam down the center of the ceiling, also walnut stained.

Now, I have to figure out what to do with the floor since it's very rough concrete. Ceramic or terra cotta tile is a viable option and since I know how to do tile work, it's probably what I will end up doing. Add a throw rug, some sound diffusers, and my gear, once we move to the farm of course, and it'll be ready to rock.

Anyway, that's the update on the Kill Branch recording Studio.

Nice work Herb! Must be very satisfying doing a lot of the work yourself and seeing it all coming together.

57Gregy
A studio separate from the house. You'll need an alarm. Know anyone in the alarm business?

And probably some stuff on the windows and all that ... some serious security would be good, like some well placed cameras way out of sight?
 
Super nice ... and coming along just even better!

What an improvement already! 
 
20+ acres...  What the heck were you and Bob thinkin'??? 
 
If you have any flow at all from your creek/little river, you could put in a small water wheel and get some electricity from it too (an amazing amount considering).

Very cool! Thanks for keeping us updated, and congrats on having the ooomph to do all that hard work.
 
I hear sasquatches are telepathic, so think good thoughts only.
 
-Tom

craigb
 
If you have any flow at all from your creek/little river, you could put in a small water wheel and get some electricity from it too (an amazing amount considering).

good advice-otherwise known as a Pelton Wheel-we had one rigged up to a car alternator but the waterflow was not constant year round where yours is-add a bank of lithium batteries and an inverter and the shed could be off-grid.
cheers

bitman
You saw that shack in the weeds and saw a studio?
Good for you.
 
Looks good.
 

Talk about "vision" ... that's almost scary, but very cool!

Awesome Herb! More pictures please!

57Gregy
Unless you're there every day, an alarm system might be a good idea now.
You may show up one day and find it occupied by squatters.
 
By the way, let me know when you're finished. I'd like to visit your new place, but don't want to be put to work.

 
I'm trying to work on it quite a bit this week to get the place almost finished and that includes installing the alarm system. Noise scares people off and they don't know if it is or isn't calling the law.
 
Feel free to give me a call and drop by if you're in the area. I won't put you to work unless you tell me you're there to work. 

I've started today on the wood on the other wall..... then there's only the back wall left to trim out. Tomorrow it's getting the sheet metal for the porch roof and getting it up and secured.  Today I pulled hundreds of nails out of the boards I salvaged from the house.