so the house is not filled with teens screaming at each other and music playing in the next room, or the TV from downstairs.
I am down to one 13 year old...so I still have to deal with a lot of external sounds and activity going on around me. Friends popping by, door bells ringing, setting off 2 dogs barking...etc, etc.
What I did a few years back, was divide my studio set up into to rooms or areas. I have a small spare bedroom that has laminated hardwood floors and lots of furniture and bookcases in the space. I use this room for all of my mixing and "small M" mastering. All of my critical tracking was moved to my garage. The space is large. I pretty much have the space to myself. I can leave all of my mic's, amps, and external gear, set up and ready to go at the flip of a switch. The space seems to have a pretty fair room ambient; I think the peg board that I have lined the walls with for tools, breaks up some of the reflections and room noise. I was also able to build some of my own sound barriers for tracking and leave them set up.
The only flaw in my plan....Texas summers. For about 3 months out of the year, my production slows down a little. I have to choose either the cooler mornings to work or wait until things cool down some in the evenings. We really don't get much for winters down here, at least nothing that would bother an ex-Minnesotan like myself. Maybe here in the future, I need to work a portable AC unit into my plans...but then again, that would add another noise to contend with.