So if you were going to take a 50' x 25' barn-style garage and turn it into a reptile building, what would you do?

I've been pondering this question for a while now, because when we take over the in-laws farm (summer 2013), my father-in-law will be taking his classic cars with him to their new place, leaving us with a huge outbuilding to convert to a reptile barn. He asked me to draw up plans for it so he can start asking around to find out which contractors would be willing to work with us and which have the best prices.

I came up with this:

Since we are hoping to adopt, we think it will be paramount for our being considered by an agency and the homestudy group to have any "dangerous" or potentially so animals in a locked room. The lock room will be large enough to house Malakai (aka Shesmu) our normal burm, along with a couple of larger monitors and eventually a true redtail boa. Tara has also mentioned interest in a Mexican Beaded Lizard or Gila... the only hot we'd ever like to keep. All of these would be in that room, which would be created to be an escape proof, locked room, with escape proof caging and all the supplies needed to handle these animals.

The next room would be a room for our temperate colubrids and lizards. This room would be designed so as to allow us to turn off the heat, or cut it to a bare minimum, to allow for whole-room brumation if we so desired. My ideal situation would be to have a variety of stacked AP cages in here from 2' x 4' with dividers to 2' x 3' for the ratsnakes and larger kings. We would also house the temperate geckos in here-- Rhacodactylus of varying species.

The bulk of the building would be devoted to desert, tropical and sub-tropical species. It will be heated to an appropriate "night drop" temp at all times, and Virginia is warm enough in the summer that heat could simple be turned off, with window AC units running during the hottest parts of the day to keep temps reasonable.

This section would have mostly 4' x 2' AP cages with other DIY set ups for larger lizards and torts. It would also likely have several large stock tanks (empty area in the lower right) for water turtles and various large aquariums. It would have access to the section of the yard where we plan to house the tortoises and boxies outdoors during the warm season, and Lucy, our now growing Sulcata, would have a 6' x 10' indoor pen for the winter that leads directly to her outdoor summer quarters.

I also added a work surface that could be as simple as a countertop bolted to the wall, along with a utility sink that could easily be connected to a "Python" style water changer for the aquariums and turtle tubs.

We're planning on a small water heater in the utility closet, and we're going to explore heating and cooling options. We have access to both gas and oil heat and can tap any of those lines. That part is still up in the air.

Am I missing anything?? What else would be nice to add?

I did the drawing using Microsoft Excel, and was able to draw cages with additional tabs to ensure we'd have enough space for what we currently keep and what we'd like to keep in the future.