Inspectors from the city came out from time to time during construction to make various inspections such as electrical, framing, air conditioning, and drywall. There were a few delays due to elements which prevented the inspections from passing and therefore delayed the continuation of construction. Although somewhat of a hassle, I realized that these inspections were necessary and served to make the facility safe.
There were also some typical problems that I encountered during the construction process such as: the men activating our home security system twice causing the police to come out, an electrician severing our phone line leaving us without any phone service for three days, workers taking some shortcuts instead of following the plans precisely, and a certain carpet company which kept promising to come over and install the carpet "tomorrow" for almost three weeks before suddenly going out of business. From what I have heard about other construction projects though, the problems I encountered were far less than what most people have had when dealing with these people.
After the walls were all in place I hired a carpenter through Norman's construction company to come out and build me a custom set of shelves in a rather odd looking place in the wall which was left after the garage had been converted. The shelves have three columns and the individual shelves are adjustable with tracking. Large wooden doors were mounted on hinges in front of the shelves. The shelves really make the studio look nice and also do a good job of squaring the room better. I keep mallets, drums, cables, cases, etc inside of them.
The days and weeks of construction seemed to slowly go by as I got more anxious than ever to move into the studio. Finally, the day came where the walls, carpet and doors were in place where I could move in and test the studio out for the first time. I have never been so nervous about playing drums as I was on this particular day. Thoughts were racing through my mind such as: "Is the studio going to work at all?". "What will it sound like in the house and outside when I am playing?" "Will I be satisfied with the results?"
The big moment was finally here. I had moved my drums into the studio and all the doors (six of them to be exact) were tightly sealed. I had Carol, my wife walk through the house and outside the house while I played. The results were actually better than I had expected. After collaborating with all of the people I had worked with over the last year or so, I knew that the studio wouldn't be 100% soundproof, so, I was hoping for extremely near soundproof, and that's exactly what I got! Now, when I play my drums full volume, the only sound which still comes through all of the layers of wall and doors is a little bit of bass drum. (This isn't too surprising because, all of my life when I have been around bands at football games and parades, the one instrument that I can always hear from the furthest distance is always the bass drum). The second instrument that can still be heard, although just barely, through the walls of the studio is the snare drum. After the walk-around-the-house-test, Carol and I conducted another test. I continued playing while she called the neighbors on each side of our house and asked them to please walk through their houses listening for the sound of my drums. Neither set of neighbors were able to hear any sound whatsoever inside of their houses. (This is a drastic improvement!) So, although there is still a minimal amount of sound coming through the walls which can be heard if someone is right next to the studio, persons in another corner of our house or in another house nearby can't hear any drums at all! I also figured out a simple way to make the studio even more soundproof. I put a big pillow inside the bass drum which muffles it quite a bit more and also makes it extremely hard to hear anything outside the studio now.
So now I have built my own little world away from the rest of civilization where I can retreat whenever I want and practice and create all kinds of neat musical things. If for no other reason, it's relaxing just to go inside my studio and shut all the doors because of the total quietness. You can't hear the phone, any outside traffic, or noise of any kind. It's perfectly quiet!
Ron was happy to hear how satisfied I was with the completed project. It seems strange though and maybe a little sad that this project is over now and we won't be working together anymore. Ron is now busy designing a police station for a neighboring town. Norman is also busy building a city hall for some nearby small town. Bill is still helping people design facilities which will be effectively acoustically, and I am staying very busy teaching drum lessons and practicing in my new studio!
I hope that this series of articles has been of some interest to those who attempt to design and build their own home studio such as I have. All in all, this is probably one of the hardest and most tedious projects I have ever attempted. There were many people along the way who told me that it couldn't be done, and there were many times when I was tempted to give up on the whole thing. I'm glad however that I stuck with it and saw the whole thing through. All of my hard work was definitely worth it. All through this project though, I kept kicking myself and asking the question, "wouldn't it have been so much easier if I had played the flute"?
Special thanks to Ron Hobbs, Bill Johnson and Carol Myers for their assistance in writing this article.
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