Building A Budget Project Studio In My Garage - advice requi

Hi all, I’m a uni student studying Music Tech and have just got back for the summer to find a garage full of stuff – and a mother adamant that I was to clear it! Well as you can imagine I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the prospect :p I’ve managed to strike a bargain though – clear the garage and I can use it as a project studio! This is more like it :D So here I am, I’ve cleared most of the crap and I can finally see roughly how much space I’ve got. I’ve taken some photos of the space, which you can see here: http://www.hmorton.net/studio/photos.htm Bad quality, I know, but unfortunately I only have a camera phone. Hopefully you can see what you need to. The room is 5 metres long by 2.3 metres wide (at its thinnest section). I haven’t measured the height yet, but as you can see there is a large open loft space. I don’t know if this is going to make things worse or not… The furniture that has to stay is the sofa, some bookshelves for the huge amount of books we have in boxes, the table which I’ll use for my DAW and an oak desk in the corner. Space is relatively limited, but I think there is enough there to make something work. It looks like this is going to turn into a bit of an essay, but I want to get this right. I’m planning to use it to record work for my university course, but I also hope to get in some local bands for an affordable alternative to the expensive professional studios that are around. I don’t know if I’ll have space for a drum kit, but we’ll see. I am currently reading through the Practical Acoustic Treatment series from Sound on Sound magazine a few years back, but any other advice anyone has for me would be greatly appreciated, as I’m rather inexperienced when it comes to making a decent sounding control room… Up until now I’ve been restricted to bedrooms. As a student my budget is limited, but as I said – I want to get this right, so it’s something I can work on over time. My equipment so far: Powermac G5 Dual 2Ghz with 1.5 GB RAM. I’m running Logic Pro 7 with an Mbox 2, an Edirol PCR-50 and a pair of Tapco monitors. No mics as yet. I was planning to get an NT2A as well as an SM57 to start with and expand as and when I can afford it/need to. I’m having extra security installed etc. What I really need help with though is how to set everything up. Placement of equipment, of insulation for acoustic treatment. Whether or not I have the space to manage a small sepourating wall for recording instruments in a none acoustically treated space… or perhaps a vocal booth style section (I’m planning on recording a lot of spoken word too, so a nice sound for that would be good too). Placement of my monitors. Also power considerations – there is one electrical socket in the room. Is running everything off this a bad idea? I’m thinking of costs here, but if it’s unsafe perhaps some extra sockets should be installed. Other considerations: dehumidifier and air con. Because I’m in a garage, these things may well be important…? Bellow is a link to a rough over head diagram I’ve made of the garage. Very little detail, but it just outlines the proportions. http://hmorton.net/studio/room_dimensions.jpg OK, I think that’s it. Basically ANY advice that anyone has to offer would be awesome. Like I said, I’m reading up on the Practical Acoustic Treatment articles, but I’d really be up for anyone willing to share ideas on how I might attack this project. Also the equipment I’m buying - is an NT2A a good choice? Cheers guys, I’ll keep you updated on my progress incase anyone’s interested :) Thanks for reading if you've got this far! -Harry.