The Studio Build Fund

So, here’s the thing. I love making videos. They may not be great, but they’re labors of love.
But one thing I’m not a fan of is the current workspace/studio area.

It’s the same 70s style basement that my house has always had. Since it was always just me hanging out down there playing video games, I never really cared what it looked like. Until I started filming videos. I added the pink and blue brick wall facade for a more cyberpunk look, but it doesn’t completely frame right in the videos; and as such just looks tacky for now. Plus, I had built my desk, in it’s wide, L shape, as a place for working from home and gaming simultaneously, which it really doesn’t do anymore. Work from home is fading away, and I spend more time working on videos than gaming these days.

There had been a very poorly built dry bar built into the back corner, which I have ripped out, and started framing in a closet, but that’s been on hold since I finished the electrical, mostly because I also need to do the floor and I’m not sure which to do first anymore.

So there’s a lot that needs to be done to build a proper studio out of this space.

First, and the thing that will help the most is getting the old walls redone. Getting rid of the old wood panels and putting some nice, light color painted drywall up would be a huge help. I was actually just thinking of getting some 1/4” drywall and going over it, rather than ripping it all out and putting it all back up. But I want to rerun the electrical into something that makes more sense, so I don’t think that’s the way to go anymore. I may have to rip it all out; and if the space behind the closet is any indication, it isn’t insulated and really should be. So that’s just even more to deal with.

Second is that the space really needs the floor redone. That means moving everything out, leveling the floor, installing the laminate, and putting everything back in. A giant pain, but not unreasonable. It doesn’t have to mean moving everything out of the basement, just around a lot.

Third is putting some seriously new infrastructure in the house. I have gigabit fiber into the house, but nothing can take advantage of that. I’d love to put a NAS in the utility room and build a 10G network in the basement, and carry 2.5G through the rest of the house. Total pipe dream for the rest of the house but a handful of 10G lines around the basement shouldn’t be too bad.

Fourth is getting rid of the old steam pipes, and redoing the ceiling. It’s just a headroom and quality of life issue.
The ceiling really needs to be completely removed and redone. I don’t know what’s up there now, but it’s not pretty at all and you can see all the nails. Plus I would want to install a bunch of recessed lights. And the steam pipes can go now that I’ve converted the house to a nice heat pump system that has had no problem keeping up for a year now.

Fifth will be expanding the actual useful space in my basement. There is a non-load-bearing wall that just arbitrarily divides the space, and I want to move it. Make a sitting area and a space for the NEON.fm servers to sit somewhere else. Probably closer to the network interface. Additionally while moving that wall, I’ll also be adding a dividing wall in the main space to put my desk against once I can rotate it 90 degrees to make the room far more organized.

Finally The real lights and sound deadening can go in, and hopefully I won’t have to do voiceover for everything, though I do like getting to edit what I say a whole lot so maybe I will keep doing that.

What is the Studio Build Fund then?

Well, that’s where I’ll be putting every Ko-fi or channel donation of any type, plus whatever profit I make selling things in my store.

I’m big into DIY, but there are things that are more than I’m comfortable doing. Like removing the steam pipes will be about $1K for a good salvage company to come in and take them all out (as well as the old boiler). For the amount of electrical I’m doing I’ll have to pull a permit and have an electrician come in, so about $750 there, and that’s with my friends and family discount (and my helping with the labor). If I’ve done my math right, it’ll be close to $2k to do the floors properly. And I need about $1K in drywall, paint, and supplies to knock out the walls.

Since this is also my workspace, I really need to plan it out so that I can run a project from start to finish quickly, as I probably won’t be able to use the space in between. Especially the floor. I could probably get away with half as much self leveling cement if I just take out the big dips and live with the smaller slopes, but I still have to move everything around to make that happen.

As of posting the end of July 2022, I have all of $9 in the fund. Thanks to my dad for buying me three coffees! 😂
I appreciate this community and don’t ever expect anything from anyone, just keep supporting me and I’ll make it happen.

Thanks!