Over the last year I've been investigating improving / changing / building some new studio space. At the moment I have a nice enough room but a) the ceiling is more of an amplifier for upstairs space than any kind of baffle and b) my wife and i disagree on the name of the room. We both think the first four letters are S, T, U and D, but she thinks the last letter is a Y rather than the obvious I and O.
So we started digging into options, up to and including moving house. Along the way life has thrown up its usual set of challenges: redundancy, new developments, arsey councils, planning covenants, mortgage terms, stolen motobikes and commuting requirements, future resale, etc. etc. etc.
All of which has led to the current plan that is finally approaching implementation. Hence my starting this thread.
I'll be updating this over the next 3 or 4 months or so (and potentially longer as things carry on and the list of compromises grows).

TLDR: we looked at moving house, extending, building a proper separate building, and finally a 'garden office' space. For the reasons listed above (and others) we've ended up with the last option.
So here's the first set of photos with the clearance work to date.
Before (1):

Before (2):

Chopping the trees and bamboo in prep for the gardener:

The gardener's here:

The gardener's gone:

Breaking up the concrete:

Digging out the post mounts:

Breaking up the hardcore base:


So we're currently at 'bombsite' stage and likely to be for the next few weekends as I break up the hardcore base and then it will improve slightly as I level the ground again in preparation for the base installation in 5 weeks.

This is why I'm not getting any other music stuff done!