Ideal herp room?

[Hypancistrus]

Has anyone ever put some thought into mentally (or actually) designing their ideal herp or animal room? My fiance and I have been talking about our plans for 3 or so years in the future once she is working full time. We are hoping to move a bit out of the city, buy some land in the country and drop a modular home on it.

I have recently become intrigued by floor plans that offer a "bonus room" on the upper floor. I think this could serve very well as a reptile/exotics room. Right now, I use our basement and most of the free-ranging pets are kept out of it, except my lonely black cat, Siren, who hates all other mammalian life. The basement is okay, but has several weaknesses, among these a severe lack of ambient light. All of my cages down there have lights on them, which are expensive to run. In addition, Siren doesn't have access to much window area to sit and bask, and this pains me. Lastly, because it is a small space, there's not really any sitting area down there to really enjoy watching anything. That's a bummer.

But a bonus room would have at least one big window, maybe more, with the potential for skylights too. It would be a much larger space than my basement, both in square footage and height. With more ambient light I could even do something like build in a finch aviary, to keep some finches I've always admired but never been able to keep because... cats. (Siren is fine with all animals and does not hunt) I think I would try to keep a line of PVC cages to one side of the room, with some larger display cages that would let me keep some bigger animals on the other side. I'm dreaming of some nice, zoo quality, cages-by-design-esqe cages for a larger boa, a Savannah monitor or tegu and perhaps an iguana! I am not a breeder, so I just need comfy and pretty places to house my pets.

I was thinking also I could put a nice old couch or maybe a couple of comfy chairs in the middle of the room to provide a place to sit and enjoy my critters. It would need to either be close to a bathroom with water or preferably have it's own small sink. I'm not sure how hard that would be to add to the room. In addition, I'd have to check on insulation and other such things related to a bonus room, particularly in the floor, as a lot of them are above the garage.

Anyone else ever planned out their ideal room? What would you include?

[bcr229]

Speaking from experience, a window is the last thing I want in my snake room, unless it faces north. I have skylights on my "bonus room" - they are covered this time of year to cut my electric bill. Use non-heating energy efficient LED lighting in the enclosures instead.

I'd want tile or vinyl flooring that can get wet.

I'd want a floor drain to make clean-up easy (hose it off).

I'd want an adjoining bathroom set up with a large sink, toilet, walk-in shower, and storage.

I'd want a wall outlet every 2-3 feet and at least two breakers on the room.

I'd want easy access to the outside because moving racks and stacks up and down stairs is a PITA. Think walk-out basement.

[bmack]

You just about listed everything I have planned for myself someday. House out from the city just a bit, and a nice large room full of herps. I'm going with a ground level though for a floor drain and ease of access with multiple doors in case of an accident.

[artgecko]

Didn't consider the drain in the floor...
That said, my reptile room is a bonus "bedroom" on the bottom floor of our split-level house. It has 1 window. I lobbied my husband to put down vinyl floors when we moved in (it was carpet) and that has been the best $1,200 I've ever spent. My room has a small bathroom with walk-in shower, standard sink and toilet.. That is great, but I'd love an additional utility sink. I think a good cleaning setup with counter space (maybe industrial stainless steel counters) would be awesome and I appreciate having a bathroom there.

I ditto lots of electrical outlets... This was not an option in the room I'm using (electrician said it would be prohibitively expensive to add more due to room location). But I"d also want outlets up off the floor..Maybe half-wall height. That would make plugging racks in easier.

Another consideration is good lighting.. My room stinks in that dept. If I designed it from scratch, I'd put in industrial flourescent fixtures.

I think a desk area would be good too and loads of storage. My room has a walk-in closet I'm using and even it is too small...I'd like to add shelves to make storing supplies easier.

[distaff]

I'd want all those outlets connected to a good solar panel and battery set-up so I wouldn't have to worry about electricity - neither outages, nor the cost. I KNOW it doesn't really pay - solar is expensive, but the ongoing expense of electricity just completely buggs me.

[bcr229]

I'd want all those outlets connected to a good solar panel and battery set-up so I wouldn't have to worry about electricity - neither outages, nor the cost. I KNOW it doesn't really pay - solar is expensive, but the ongoing expense of electricity just completely buggs me.

In most places you're better off economically hooking up to the grid, getting a back-up generator, and using a backup non-electric heat source such as propane or natural gas.

[KitaCat]

Currently my herp room is a spare bedroom, with one window, too few outlets, a bathroom too far away, and carpet.
So I've definitely spent time thinking about what I would change.

No carpet of course, and I'd love a big laundry sink with an extendable hose/tap fixture thing.

I'd definitely put in a comfy chair or two - currently we barely have any space to spend time with our animals either.

I would probably do a wall of stacking enclosures, large ones for boas and smaller ones for geckos. Another wall would be snake racks. Maybe 2 walls.

I'd like to build a couple of large boa enclosures into the living room wall as well, but that's a whole other story.

[distaff]

Currently my herp room is a spare bedroom, with one window, too few outlets, a bathroom too far away, and carpet.
So I've definitely spent time thinking about what I would change.

No carpet of course, and I'd love a big laundry sink with an extendable hose/tap fixture thing.

I'd definitely put in a comfy chair or two - currently we barely have any space to spend time with our animals either.

I would probably do a wall of stacking enclosures, large ones for boas and smaller ones for geckos. Another wall would be snake racks. Maybe 2 walls.

I'd like to build a couple of large boa enclosures into the living room wall as well, but that's a whole other story.

For the snakes that like to "see and be seen," I'd love a few cabinet quality enclosures too. Been looking at the Russian Ratsnakes (Elaphe schranki) recently. They would apparently be good candidates for that.

[DVirginiana]

My parents' house has kind of an unfinished basement that is basically the size of an entire floor, but not really comfortable to spend a lot of time in (you can see the rafters, the walls are concrete, and the floor is concrete). It has great natural thermoregulation since it's mostly underground, an exit to the outside, a freezer and a sink. I'd love to have a house with that sort of basement that I could modify for herps. That sort of space would give me the chance to work with a lot of the larger animals I've always wanted to work with.

[GoingPostal]

I have my reptile room setup pretty much as I like it, only thing I would really want is more space. We made a bedroom into the herp room and it already had a sink so we swapped it for a utility one, it had two closets so one became an iguana cage, the other is storage. I updated the outlets but didn't add any although that would have been a good idea, one side of the room is hard to reach but it works. There is a window which I like but there's dark curtains in case of hot days (not a big issue where I live). I still need a comfy chair and better table/shelf to work on though.