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My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)
- Thread starter silky smoove
- Start date
Door guy is on-site right now installing the HOPEFULLY correct deadbolt. The contractor emailed me earlier this week with a picture of the deadbolt that they got. Not a shot from a catalog, the actual one in their hand. It was indeed the correct model. If they took the one they showed me, gave it to their installer and sent him to my place all SHOULD be okay. I'd really like this saga to come to a close.
Indeed. I was planning on helping a buddy move this weekend, but the date got pushed out a week which frees me up to do some work. Fittingly enough my wife will be shooting a wedding on Saturday, so I'll be left to my own devices. With a little luck I'll get the insulation wrapped up that afternoon.
The saga continues! 
I'm absolutely wrecked from a VERY long and late gig last night. I was contemplating going to do some insulation work, but am feeling anything but motivated. I decided to go and program the deadbolt keypad that the contractor installed last week so I could stop using the door key when I'm working on the studio. I watched a YouTube video on how to do it as the manual was super cumbersome and not very well laid out. The video says that you need to enter the programming code that's installed in the lock's memory before it leaves the factory. That allows you to change the door codes. It's listed in two places: On the back of the manual, and behind the inside cover of the deadbolt, which is accessed on the inside of the building by removing the cover which just sort of snaps into place.
I reach for the manual, and the sticker with the codes is not present.
I pop the cover off of the lock, and the sticker with the codes is not present here either!
I call Schlage and a very friendly and helpful customer service rep went through everything with me. She was super apologetic when I explained that there wasn't a sticker in either location. She said that having it in two spots in case one disappears for some reason was why they built in that redundancy, and that she'd never heard of one being omitted from both locations.
She's sending me a new deadbolt that I'll have to replace the current one with. She said that I can just keep the one that's currently installed, and most people do that just for spare parts in case something breaks or malfunctions. Makes sense, and it'll be easy enough to just throw it in a drawer as a contingency. It's shipping from Ensenada Mexico, and due to customs will take an estimated 15-days to arrive here in Seattle. Oh well. At least the key still works for the time being.
Now if I could just find some motivation to begin insulating I'd really be on a roll for today
I'm absolutely wrecked from a VERY long and late gig last night. I was contemplating going to do some insulation work, but am feeling anything but motivated. I decided to go and program the deadbolt keypad that the contractor installed last week so I could stop using the door key when I'm working on the studio. I watched a YouTube video on how to do it as the manual was super cumbersome and not very well laid out. The video says that you need to enter the programming code that's installed in the lock's memory before it leaves the factory. That allows you to change the door codes. It's listed in two places: On the back of the manual, and behind the inside cover of the deadbolt, which is accessed on the inside of the building by removing the cover which just sort of snaps into place.
I reach for the manual, and the sticker with the codes is not present.
I pop the cover off of the lock, and the sticker with the codes is not present here either!
I call Schlage and a very friendly and helpful customer service rep went through everything with me. She was super apologetic when I explained that there wasn't a sticker in either location. She said that having it in two spots in case one disappears for some reason was why they built in that redundancy, and that she'd never heard of one being omitted from both locations.
She's sending me a new deadbolt that I'll have to replace the current one with. She said that I can just keep the one that's currently installed, and most people do that just for spare parts in case something breaks or malfunctions. Makes sense, and it'll be easy enough to just throw it in a drawer as a contingency. It's shipping from Ensenada Mexico, and due to customs will take an estimated 15-days to arrive here in Seattle. Oh well. At least the key still works for the time being.
Now if I could just find some motivation to begin insulating I'd really be on a roll for today
You're just getting all the issues out of the way so that when the studio is up and running it will be nothing but smooth sailing. 
The funding source for this is now proving more difficult than any permitting hurdle I faced months ago. Due to the fact that my wife runs a business out of our basement, the property is now considered "mixed use" by all lenders. That puts them in a position where their underwriters won't allow them to consider the home an asset for collateral. I could setup an LLC for the studio and borrow the money as a business (i.e. business loan), but that comes with a lot of stipulations that I'm not ready to tackle. I don't want to go down that road, so it looks like self-funding is my only option. Revised schedule is looking like end of 2018 to be done assuming there's $20,000 left to finish construction. I've got some other large purchases between now and then (one of which is nearly half the cost of finishing the studio!), which is why the timeline is so long.
Not the news I was hoping for, but that's the reality of the situation. I'll be pecking away at it as time and money allow, but I suspect things will start going even more slowly now than they've already been.
Not the news I was hoping for, but that's the reality of the situation. I'll be pecking away at it as time and money allow, but I suspect things will start going even more slowly now than they've already been.
There was a VERY brief consideration of doing a cash-out refinance on our mortgage either for the portion remaining on the studio (around $20,000), or the maximum amount we could borrow before hitting 75% LTV (around $67,000). Either scenario comes with such a drastic cost differential compared to financing it ourselves due to the fact that we'd be amortizing the added principal and interest payments over 30-years. The studio's remaining $20,000 would have cost me $50,760 by the time it was paid off in 30-years based on today's rates. It's possible that we'll have sold the house by then, but we're assuming that we'll be here for a long time, short of winning the lottery 
That cost differential was not appealing in the least, so we're just going to fund it ourselves. All that means is that I really need to buckle down on finances and get very aggressive with my allocation towards projects each month.
That cost differential was not appealing in the least, so we're just going to fund it ourselves. All that means is that I really need to buckle down on finances and get very aggressive with my allocation towards projects each month.
No option of an equity based line of credit? You could have that paid off in a few years through studio earnings that would otherwise be forsaken. And with current interest rates, costs of financing would be a twaddle. Very few successful businesses get off the ground without some kind of leverage.
Or - this could be one of those situations where that extra kidney could come in handy.
Or - this could be one of those situations where that extra kidney could come in handy.
Ah, I see. That's too bad. Selling a kidney it is, then...or some other trade off.
good thought, do you have any gear/equipment you can liquidate? i swear every drummer i know has like 4 kits. The gig kit, the recording kit, the "too expensive to play" kit, and the beater kit.
Wouldn't it be nice to make some money in music that could finance the studio.
Write and record a song or album. Own the publishing. Have CD Baby handle distribution on iTunes and other digital providers. Register with Sound Exchange so that you will be paid when someone listens to your song, such as on youtube. Upload the video to youtube, wait for it to go viral.
In case that doesn't work out, it never hurts to buy a lottery ticket every now and then.
Write and record a song or album. Own the publishing. Have CD Baby handle distribution on iTunes and other digital providers. Register with Sound Exchange so that you will be paid when someone listens to your song, such as on youtube. Upload the video to youtube, wait for it to go viral.
In case that doesn't work out, it never hurts to buy a lottery ticket every now and then.
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I've been working to get rid of unused gear, and have been doing a great job of it. I've liquidated everything except for a $250'ish FireWire recording interface that I no longer use. Despite all of that liquidation, I just updated my MusicPro insurance and have just over $31,000 worth of gear in active use. Pretty crazy to see how quickly it added up.
I make a pittance here and there, but nothing that would put a dent in the studio budget unfortunately. If I could get my corporate band off the ground (one stumbling block after another on that front) it could actually turn a profit, but that's just speculative at this point.
I'm hoping that my two album solo debut will come out this year. Seriously. It's all instrumental though, so I'm not convinced it will do anything financially, nor am I really pushing it that way. I might try for some licensing, but there again, not holding my breath.
My wife and I buy a ticket for this local raffle thing every year. The top prize is something like three million, and the odds are far better than any lottery. We don't do it thinking we'll ever win much (although one year we did win the stereo that's in our living room). It's more of a silly thing to do on the WAY OFF chance that it comes through. The drawing is on Friday, so... Who knows?!
