Do you want instant gratification? If so, do not build your own office/studio. Seriously, this project feels like it is taking a long time! All the youtubers and tiktokkers say, "you can build a shed in a weekend!" And maybe they are right but we haven't managed to. A lot of the reason is that we've never done it before so we have to learn so much before we can start each step. And I might have been super picky and tried to plan ahead for everything and that means we had to do a lot of extra steps.
For example, I wanted a heated space so I needed insulation. But we live in the woods so mice, squirrels and chipmunks would promptly discover and colonize and insulated space if not destroy the insulation itself. So...I insisted on 145 square feet or .25 inch hardware cloth being installed under the building. While it took us an entire day to 'sew' it together and attached completely under the base, it will save me from mouse chewed books in the future. That is how it is supposed to work anyway.
We're also mixing found and old materials in with new building materials so a quarter inch here or there means another headache down the line. who sides a building with 3/4 inch cedar right from the sawmill? Yep - that'd be us. We did let it dry for six months though so no worries there. And who tries to strip the paint from a 100+ year old door a generous person dragged out of their basement for us? Also us. The stripper was no match for five layers of paint and one layer of varnish unfortunately so we painted it, again. And did I mention that many of the methods are new to us so we're learning them as we go?
So if instant gratification if your vibe, please don't build your own building unless you know how. And even if you do know how, it'll take awhile. But I will tell you, stepping into that work in progress feels far better than stepping into a shed in front of Home Depot. I think it's the presence of the 100 year old door