Kitchen ordered...

The second floor kitchen has been ordered.    It's going to look amazing.   Stainless steel appliances, dark wood with butcher block counter top.    It will be the heart of the second floor with a full kitchen, Led TV and couches.   

The process really gets exciting when we start to move into the finish stage.       

Going Green part 1

In the planning process we have made every effort to make the studio as green as possible. The first thing we did was add as much natural light to the second floor.  When we bought the building it was dark and dreary.   For studios/writing rooms that is usually okay.   Natural light and sound isolation go counter to each other.   So for the common areas we decided to remove the walls adjacent to windows.  Then added solar tubes to reduce the amount of lights needed to run in the bathrooms and hallways.  

For flooring we have decided to go with a fantastic hybrid product.   Bamboo wasn't durable enough so this hybrid laminate will do the trick.   Durable and looks great.  

More to come!

Framing done-The city gives us the thumbs up

As of today, framing is finally finished.    It was a haul to get here but worth it.   You really can get a feeling for the space now.    As such, we have been making minor alterations to the original plan.   It's actually amazing how
much of that happens.   We must have changed the ceiling for the live room 10 times.   There were alterations to it up to the last minute.  

Saturday we are installing the solar tubes.   We are trying to add as much natural light as possible.   We are trying to go as green as our building allows.

Sometimes that's up to the city though.   I tried to recycle our waste water from our AC, and I was told "no".   It could have automatically watered our outside plants.  Too bad.

We can start to cover the walls for the studios upstairs.  Thanks goodness.   Monday the last cables/insulation gets installed.  Tuesday the walls are covered.    By the end of the week the wall will have mud and tape.   Hopefully  we start to paint after that.   Come join the party!    I buy the beer and pizza..

Waiting for the City

Construction is waiting.   Not exactly Confucius, but the truth.   The second story has pretty much stayed the same for the last two weeks mainly because of a mix up with the city.

At our prior studio in the Marina, air conditioning was our big problem.   It was 2000 sq ft and it had two thermostats.  Usually not a problem, except in a studio environment.   We had to run the air all the time to keep the writing rooms cool, and as a result the main office areas were usually around 68 degrees.    So Chris and I decided from the start to put as many air conditioning units and thermostats as possible.   Each writing room in the new studio has it's own dedicated unit.   They are called split systems.    Each unit is whisper quiet and very efficient.   That brings me to the mix up.

We knew they wanted us to screen some of the AC on the roof but they are requiring us to screen all the units.   Basically if Google Earth can see them they want them covered.    It's been a pain and has set us back a few weeks.   Hopefully it's going to be cleared up soon.

This week we are finishing all the framing.   If the inspector gives a go then we can finish the upstairs in a few weeks.   It could happen fast and furious...
     

So it Begins....The slide show

Here's a little video I put together showing the first two months of work

Thanks to Keane for the track

Drywall is going up...more to come