The Studio

I'm a musician, and one of our first projects was to build a teaching and rehearsal studio behind the house. There was already an existing detached garage and workshop in the back, and our hope was to save as much of this structure as possible. Unfortunately, the building was too far gone. It had no foundation, only a dirt floor, and it was badly damaged by termites. There was so much of a lean to the building that it looked like someone could just push it over. The photo above is the completed studio, and here's a "before" shot.

I designed a very simple 24' x 16' building that would have two rooms, each with its own exterior door. The
back room (8' x 16'), the "garage" would be used for tool and lawnmower storage. The front room would be the music studio (16' x 16'.) Our budget for the completed building was roughly $10,000, which meant that we would need to do almost all the work ourselves. Most contractors would charge $25-60,000 for an all-new construction like this one. Here's my original sketch. I drew this to pass time on a long flight.
We hired a concrete company to lay the forms for the slab and bring the concrete, but to save money, we wheel-barrowed it into the forms and finished it. We did all the rest of the work ourselves except we hired a roofer to put on the shingles. Here's what we did:

Framing
We had one person with framing experience, along with some friends and family, and we framed and sheathed the building in a weekend.


Siding
We used HardiPlank siding and installed it ourselves. There are a number of websites that tell you how to install it, but this one is particularly helpful. I think anyone can do this themselves. It's a great DIY project because installers charge a fortune, but it's not hard. Here's a photo of my wife putting up the HardiPlank. She's now a pro with the nail gun.


Insulation

We wanted to avoid using typical fiberglass insulation because of it's unhealthy qualities. We decided to go with recycled blue jean insulation because it is more environmentally friendly and it also has better soundproofing capability than fiberglass. It is also much easier to install -- no need for long sleeves, gloves, and goggles. I have been extremely impressed with the sound proofing and installing it was a breeze. We bought our insulation at Ecowise in south Austin. I managed to fit the rolls we needed into my VW Jetta in only a few trips.

Electrical
I did all of the electric work myself. This involved digging a trench from the house to the studio, burying conduit, adding a dual-breaker to the box on the house, adding a subpanel in the studio, and installing all of the outlets and switches. I learned how to do most of this from books and the internet, but anytime I had a question I would just call some electricians. Most of the time, they were surprisingly helpful over the phone. I also pulled permits for all of the work, so each step was inspected and approved by the City of Austin electrical inspectors. If you're not completely confident in doing electrical work, it's best to hire an electrician. If you decide to do any electrical work yourself, just remember to turn off the power, lock the breaker box, then check and double check with a voltage tester!

Flooring
We decided to stain the concrete floors a dark brown color. I wanted the look of stained concrete, but I was very hesitant to do acid staining myself. That stuff is nasty, and you have to be very careful when working with it. A friend of mine recommended a water-based concrete stain that was easier to apply, better to work with, and better for the environment. We used Mason's Select Transparent Concrete Stain made by SuperDeck. The benefit of acid staining is that you get a nice marbled look because the acid staining reacts with the natural properties of the concrete. You can achieve the same look with water-based stains by using two different colors. We used a black and a brown stain to create 2 different mixes - a dark brown (part brown, part black) and a light brown (all brown.) Then we used simple garden pump sprayers ($10) and applied the stain using a light, circular motion. To do this, spray on one color, and then before it dries, spray on the second color. Because the stains are still wet, they will mix slightly and give you the acid-stain look without all the mess. Here's a shot of our finished floor.
The closet in this photo is planked horizontally with western red cedar boards. I needed storage space in the music room, so I framed out a closet in the corner. Instead of just having more drab drywall, I decided to make the closet an architectural focal point. Cedar boards can be very expensive, so I just bought standard 6' fence pickets from the home center (about $2 each) and sanded one side smooth. I mitered the corners and used the same board on both sides of the corner so that the grain would match. The project took one Saturday and only cost around $60.

Air Conditioning
This is Texas, and Texas is hot. It didn't make sense to install a central air conditioning unit and run duct work for just one room, but we also did not want to have a window unit. Window units are incredibly loud and not efficient. A mini-split system was the perfect solution. We bought a Soleus mini-split unit online for under $600 shipped from airconditioner.com. It heats and cools very well, and all with less noise than my computer's hard drive. It's been through two Texas summers and continues to work perfectly.