FINALLY!! The saga begins

Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 11:07 pm

2/24/05

Friday morning of last week, I left a rather polite note in the neighbor's mailbox asking him to call me to discuss the issue of our property lines. Still nothing from the inconsiderate SOB. I got a good look this past weekend at the survey markers the moron took up.

If this idiot is serious about how much land he thinks is his, he's in serious *%$*%^#. This fool is trying to say he owns close to 2 acres of MY land!

(This ain't gonna be ANY fun.)

Now I don't know if it's the stress of all this crap with the neighbor plus the day gig and my second part time gig with a production company, but I'm startin' to have some second thoughts on my studio design.

I was working the drawings with the new calculations using 2x6 stud walls and suddenly I looked at the control room and said to myself, "Self, that room is just plain too small."

(I got real un-nerved by all this, as I almost didn't recognize the voice. But it was me, so I calmed down a bit...)

At any rate, I think I've been trying to put too much into the space. It's only 1200 s.f. I shouldn't really be trying to shove a control room, two iso's, a drum room AND a piano room into the space.

I dunno.

I've still got time before I'll have to get an engineer to OK the drawings if I redraw the whole thing.

I think I'll try to increase the control room from ~250 s.f. to ~400 s.f. (3:1 s.f. ratio) If I kill the drum iso I can increase the overall area of the live room. Eliminating the second iso, I can let the workroom/airlock act as the second iso. That leaves me with a small(er) area for a piano room... maybe 6x9?

A friend of mine who teaches at MTSU was telling me about a room in Nashville that had a piano room where the piano was rubber gasketed through a wall. They got the volume for the piano to "sound" via a vertical column of air. I should be able to get about 121/2 to 13 feet of ceiling height. By cutting back from my hopes of a 6-1/2 to 7 foot grand down to a 5-1/2 foot or possibly an old upright Steinway, a smaller room could work.

I hate second guessing, but I gotta go with the gut feeling on this one. There's just too much at stake to make the control room "just big enough." It should be plenty big enough... afterall, what I'm trying to get is a mix and overdub facility to augment the mobile rig.

I just hope that the 3:1 ratio is allocating enough space for it all to work.

In a quandry,
Max

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2005 11:00 am

2/27/05

Just finished round one of the re-design of the studio plans.

Walls are 2x6 w/ 4 layers of 5/8 Gypsum. 2" of gap between each floor pad. That gives me a total wall cavity of 16" and 2.5" of mass on each wall.

Contemplating the RPG DifussorBlox for the rear wall. (Yeah it's a flat out idea rip from Fidelitorium, but since Wes did such a great job on it, I'm hoping he won't mind the lifting of his idea.)

http://www.rpginc.com/products/diffusorblox/index.htm

Any thoughts?The new plans are here:

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 7:39 am

Max,

Talk to the Alamance County Land Records Department (possibly part of the Tax Assessor's function). Their records include xy coordinates and vectors of your lot. You may even want to see if their GIS capabilities include ortho photos which have boundary lines superimposed on the photos. You can access this stuff on-line. Here's the link to their GIS map service. Actually, it looks kind of rudimentary. I don't see orthos, not sure if even the boundary lines are there. Poke around a while and see. High speed is pretty essential when browsing GIS.

I would use this data to try to convince your neighbor to CTFO. Oh sure, you can get the Sheriff involved, Court Orders, more surveying, etc... but at that point, you've pissed off a neighbor who will listen for any sound emanating from your hippie music shack and call the law.

Lucky for you Alamance is quite aggressive about development and thier processes are streamlined to help you do your thing (believe it or not). You are also just a county over from Wes Lachot, whose sage advice could really save you a lot of acoustic headaches in the end.

I hope this helps.

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:29 am

Todzilla,

Yeah, GIS is GREAT! Found it about two years ago... The soil inspector originally tried to use the GIS map to locate the system, but couldn't find two of the irons. That's why I had to get the survey done.

I downloaded all of the adjoing properties, WITH 5' topo's (they are available along with about a dozen other options), twice. About two years ago when we moved, and two weeks ago when all this crap started. Of course absolutely nothing is different... BUT, they're still showing the previous owner's name on the PITA neighbor's property too! WTF?

I'm really trying to handle this neighbor thing the RIGHT way. e.g. If it was the other way around and I thought that someone was trying to put some type of construction on my land...

I think that with all of the evidence I have, plus the other neighbors all agree that the survey is right, and they WANT the studio as much as I do, that we should be able to get him to back off.

Afterall,
1. It's just a septic system and I darn sure won't ever be building anything else down that way on the property.
2. I want to preserve (and add) as many trees as I can. (isolation visually)
3. I intend on putting up a 10' wooden fence, just on the tree line. (additional sound and visual isolation)

Kind of ironic that about the time I rework the studio layout and I'm ready to start this build that Wes is no longer a moderator here. DEFINITELY gonna miss his input. Especially since I'm kinda' lifting his design from Fidelitorium.

I emailed him yesterday and it's ony right that I at least have him review the plans and consult all the way through... Actually, I'm still hoping I can get him to do the whole project, but right now money's a bit stretched just buying all the materials.

Stay tuned...
Max

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:03 am

Max,

Call the GIS office in Alamance and ask why their maps are so out of date. If they blame it on the Register of Deeds, remember, those are elected officials in NC and will jump when you call them.

From the next county over...

-Todzilla

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:48 am

3/7/05

Finally met and talked to the neighbor!

He admitted his actions were a bit over the top.

We've gotten the issue with the land cleared up. His main objection was centered around the fact that he thought I was going to be putting a new building in and that all of the trees were going to be coming down on the hill above his property. Then he'd be dealing with a water run-off/soil erosion issue. I can see his point.

I've agreed to call the county back and get them to look for another place for the septic system. If nothing else I can flip the lounge/bath area of the studio to the other end of the building and put the system off that end.

Another delay, but at least I've got the land dispute taken care of.

Max

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:28 am

Hey Max

Very cool that a little discussion cleared the air...onward and upward.

Don

ps. nothing in the mailbox yet...anyday I expect

Wink

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 6:03 pm

Don,

Yeah, PEACEFUL is the key word!

Keep after the mail, it didn't get out until yesterday. The day gig has been a real drain the last few days. Pulled an all-nighter rearranging 4 servers and doin' maintenance. PITA, but it looks good and is a bit more comfortable to work in. Plus, USPS has less than banker's hours and I been rollin' out about 10 minutes before they close.

Like I said, ain't much, but thanx is in order.

Max

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 11:29 am

Well it's about time to add another update.

I've been trying for the last month to catch up with the neighbor... Until then, I'm going for Alternate Plan "B"...

If I can get the county to approve a macerating toilet, I can bypass the neighbor's objections to the septic system.

For those that are unfamiliar with a macerating toilet...

I can get water from the house down to the studio w/o too much trouble... (I HOPE!!!)

It's about 175 feet to the studio from the house. The "plan" is to put a secondary holding tank about 50 feet from the house. Pump from the macerating system to the holding tank, then pump from the holding tank to the house.

The only glitch is if the county says no.

My original plans for a sand filled floor may have been squashed by the recent hurricanes... wood is getting rather expensive right now.

Eight inch concrete floors are now looking rather economical. Anyone know of a souce for concrete stains?

Max

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 pm

Thanks for the update and I hope everything goes well!

Andre

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 1:47 pm

Quote:

For those that are unfamiliar with a macerating toilet...

We have one of those at the office. There's a dishwasher/sink that's in a corner well away from the normal plumbing, so the drain had to go a long way horizontally.
Recently it had to be replaced. The discharge pipe clogged, and the backpressure burst the seal inside of the pump enclosure. Eventually the pump failed. During repair, the enclosure was removed, and a months worth of sewage spilled out from around the pump machine onto the carpet.

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 5:31 pm

z60611 wrote:

We have one of those at the office.

Quote:

The discharge pipe clogged, and the backpressure burst the seal inside of the pump enclosure. Eventually the pump failed. During repair, the enclosure was removed, and a months worth of sewage spilled out from around the pump machine onto the carpet.

Now THAT stinks!

So they ARE going to replace the carpet aren't they? I'd think that would be a health issue if they don't.

Question... how old was the unit and was it a SaniFlo or another mfr.? (OK, that was two questions...)

Max

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 6:21 pm

Quote:

how old was the unit and was it a SaniFlo or another mfr

I have no idea what make/model it used to be, nor what it is now. It was dark blue.

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 6:51 pm

z60611 wrote:

Quote:

how old was the unit and was it a SaniFlo or another mfr

I have no idea what make/model it used to be, nor what it is now. It was dark blue.

Hmmm... blue should be a clue, but alas no luck via the seach engines...

The reason I asked is because there is a manufacturer who is out of business, and from what I can tell, it was due to quality issues.

If I'm able go this route, I hope I don't end up with the same results as you've experienced.

Thanx,
Max

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:41 am

Saniflo's are very reliable, had one in the house for 10-15 years (not sure when) for domestic use with toilet, shower and sink. It only died when one of the children put a couple of wet wipes through it (it was old). The pump just stopped working, so we emptied it (not so nice) and put a replacement unit straight in! Didn't even need to change the pipes. They have a professional range for more intensive use.

G

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