I want to get serious with the hobby...

Hi, I'm sort of a rookie with it comes to modeling. I've modeled a few of Tamiya's 1/24 cars and 1/12 motorcycles. For those small projects I only used Tamiya's acrylic paint, which is harmless.
Now I want to delve deeper into the hobby, because I actually like it. But I want to expand beyong acrylics paint, I want to use more durible enamels or lacquers for my future projects. My problem is this:
My house isn't too big so I can't afford to have my own "workshop". Previously when I used the harmless acrylics, I just airbrushed in my room with the windows open, which is OKAY. But enamels and lacquers are a different story. I can surely get one of those chemical gas masks, but they only prevent ME from breathing the vapors, but they don't protect my family or my room. I never really understood how those spray booths work, do you hook them up to a window with a fan to suck the fumes to the outside?
Another option is to work outside, but outside, there are many dusts and particles, they might drop on my finish before the paints even get dry.
I wonder what you guys do to paint. Since I plan to dedicate myself to the hobby, I want to devise a safe, efficient, and clean way to paint, it'll be a long term investment, thanks.