I record in a closet with some foam padding using my roommates sm57, and it sounds PRETTY good alone, but I cannot get it to go into a mix well (though I'm guessing this has more to do with my poor mixig skills than the actual sound of the vocals).

I usually put down howewever many verse I have first, then go back and do adlibs (or if doubling up the vocals do that then ad-libs), then do choruses last.