Well...things are happening. I have placed an order for a 12'x20' shed package to be delivered by barge to the dock down the road, and then trucked to our property. It should arrive in August. We elected to get a longer shed (the standard one is 12'x16') because my wife wanted me to have room to set up for studio shots. I take photographs for artists of their artwork, and she didn't want me to need to rearrange the entire living room every time...and she also wanted me to be more ready to take photos of the kids. So the shed will do double duty as a darkroom/studio.
I was trying to evaluate my options for heating the place and finally decided with the air flow that will be happening as a result of the ventilation system to go with a non-vented propane heat system. The heater is here already, though it produces light itself (infrared) so I will need to turn it totally off when I am rolling film onto spools. I may also seek to shield it with black-out baffles and try some test rolls to see whether it exposes them any. I considered electrical (very expensive heat) and fuel oil (need to set up fuel containment for the tank) and went for propane because the non-vented heaters are very efficient while the propane is not a long-term fuel clean-up risk. The non-vented heaters produce carbon monoxide inside the building, but the emission of CO has been reduced greatly, and is less than 50% of the level that would be deemed inappropriate for indoor heat. Coupled with a CO detector in the darkroom and the ventilation, I'm hoping it is a reasonable option.
I've got an electrician working on an estimate for me, as that's one thing I do not want to do myself. That leaves only plumbing. Having thought about this a lot, I believe I'm going to put in a huge 200 gal. cistern instead of running water. The cistern can be filled when I am prepared to start work in a day or two, and will get me through a couple of weeks work with my current practices. I do not use cold water, only room temperature, so I don't need any colder options. I use hot water to mix chemicals, so I am taking our spare microwave oven out to create hot water when I want it. This may seem a bit odd, and I've wrestled with it quite a bit. But the thought of trying to drill into my house and run a water line from the house all the way to the darkroom in an environment where even 8 feet will not ensure that it is below the freezing layer is a bit daunting. I would need to heat the water line and ensure that the grade from the darkroom to the house is such that I could drain the line easily. With the larger darkroom, I have plenty of space for the large 200 gal. tank and can't really see a reason that it will not work rather well. I still have the challenge of getting it filled in super cold weather occasionally, but that is a short-term issue rather than a chronic one. Our winters are highly variable and we usually get some days above freezing every month, so I'm hopeful that this is a reasonable option.
Now, I need to get the area leveled off and ready so I don't have any holdups when the stuff gets here!
The next one will be bigger if all goes well. You can never have too much space! Notice the BBQ... goes great with beer 
Umm, sorry 'bout the in-dark photos, I've some white-light ones and ones with the color darkroom somewhere on this disorganized hard-drive o' mine.
