Need a low budget studio design. New to forum

Just joined a few days ago, and been reading up ever since. Must say its been very helpful. Well, I've just moved into a newly built 2 story town home in the southwestern part of the state of Missouri, and I would very much like to have/build(currently only in the research stage) a room to record voice, acoustic guitar, cello, violin, and possibly guitar amp. I plan on recording at low levels, and at times of the day when external noise is at a minimum. I do have one neighbor that I share a wall with, which I will address in detail with my pics. So far noise from next door has been surprisingly very quiet. At this time a control room is of no concern to me. Most likely I will have my gear set up in an adjacent room listening with Ultrasone surround sound headphones. Then I can take or send the recordings to my brother's mixing room in St. Louis. Option #1. I could sacrifice my living room area which is 14' 4" x 10' x 11'. I think all the walls are pretty much standard 2x4 wood frame with insulation and 5/8" drywall(not exactly sure since I don't own). Floor is also made of wood with 3/4" carpet. Under the floor is a crawl space used for any tornado emergency. It extends throughout the first floor of the town home, and is only 5 feet high and is based with gravel. (Basically a 5ft basement with 8" concrete walls and 5 to 6 support beams). Above the room is my upstairs bedroom, again separated by wood, carpet, and drywall. One wall of the living room is backed up to a garage, another side to the kitchen, another side to the neighbors' stairway, and the last wall to my own stairway. (detail in pics) The major problem with this room is there has to be an outlet to the kitchen and front door/entrance to stairway, so the room is not enclosed. One more thing. Above the walk way from the front door/stairway to the kitchen there is a structure that extends from the ceiling 1' 7" and 2' 10" out from the wall that backs up to the stairs. Don't worry pics are coming! My original thought was to build a stand alone room in the space that doesn't include the walk way from the front door to the kitchen, making an area of 14' 4" x 8' 2" x 10' to work with. But, that was before discovering this forum. So, now I don't know if that would be a good idea. Option #2. The Garage is fairly straight forward: 16' x 10' x 11'. One 10' wall backs up to the living room area separated again by wood frame, insulation, and drywall. The other 10' wall is 3' dry wall and 7' garage door which is made up of only sheet metal(no insulation). The ceiling is also made of drywall with a small attic space above which leads to the garage's own roof. The two 16' side walls are again drywall with wood frame, but one backs up to the neighbors garage and the other has 3" brick on the outside. They probably included insulation, but I'm not sure. Oh, and of course a concrete floor. (no crawl space under garage. Just ground). There are a couple problems with this idea because one, the temperature would be tough to regulate, and the external noise would probably be tough to suppress. I'd really have to insulate the crap out of the garage door, and even then I'm not so sure it would help. Plus the heat in the summer time! Who wants to record in those kind of conditions. Also, the garage door opener(motor) and metal frame are hovering at around 8 and 1/2 feet from the floor, which could interfere. If all this weren't enough, I don't want to spend more than $700, because I'm renting this place, and I probably won't be living here in a year, maybe 2 years max. Also. I have obtained 417.5 square feet of 3/4" carpet. My parents were going to throw it out, so I took it thinking I could substitute it for something. Correct me if I'm wrong. I do have acoustic wedge foam, but I can talk about the set up in another post. (6 bass traps and 52 2" thick 1'x1' square pieces.) Also, Willing to build some panels for broadband absorption. Quest 1: Is building a free standing structure for my living room area or the garage totally out of the question? Quest 2: If you had this place, what would you do with my budget? That's all I'm asking. Look, I know I can't possibly get the best recording out of this place, but any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise I might just spend the 300 bucks on something like the SE Reflexion Filter and hope for the best, but I'd rather not. I'll try to submit some drawings later.

I added a file comment to each pic, but they didn't show up. Sorry 100_0220_1_1.JPG: Left wall(8'2") backs up to garage. right wall(14' 4") backs up to my stairs. Door on the left leads to garage, and the one on the right is the front door. Behind the ceiling fan in this pic is the structure I mentioned before. It extends 1' 7" from the ceiling, and 2' 10" from the wall(14'4") that backs up to the stairs 100_0218_1_1.JPG: wall on the right(8'2") backs up to the kitchen. Wall on the left(14'4") backs up to my stairs. Door on the left leads to a very small storage space under the stairs(also has carpet). The door inside of the kitchen is just a bathroom 100_0216_1_1.JPG: Wall on the right(14'4") backs up to the neighbors' stairs, and the wall on the left(8'2") backs up to my kitchen 100_0217_1_1.JPG Again, wall on the left(14'4")...neighbors' stairs. Wall on the right(8'2") backs up to my garage. Door leads to the garage. May or may not need to take down the ceiling fan. Also, there are two air vents on the ceiling running parallel to the wall on the left. You can see one in this pic.

was that $700 or $7,000? because if you need isolation, you're not going to get much for little or no money. plus you're renting. you might be better off finding a room as far from you neighbor as possible and setting up there. if you need a guitar or bass amp, consider direct and effects, but if only an amp will do, consider building an isolation box to house the amp or work out something with the neighbor. for $700 you can probably treat a bedroom decently.