Our attic after open cell spray foam

As I said in my last post, I've been busy working on our attic renovations lately.  When we bought our house 9 yrs ago it came with an unfinished attic that was perfect to finish off.  While most people would want to turn it into a master, I wanted to turn it into my dream craft/ sewing place.  We are actually going to turn almost our entire basement into our dream master retreat.  That's the next big project after this one.

After spray foam (open cell) my future sewing space

I have been working with a construction company to do everything with the project except drawing plans and filling the permit, electrical, HVAC, spray foam, installing the floors, and painting.   I have been acting as general contractor and designer for the project.  I started by drawing plans and filing a permit with the city.  I was really nervous about this but it was so easy that I feel dumb for even worrying about it.  Because I filed the permit I have been scheduling inspections with the inspector.  Also super easy. I hired out for elecrical, HVAC, and spray foam.  

My future sewing space After first day of sheet rock

What We Have Done So Far
We're finally at the over 1/2 way done part.  We now have heat and air (HVAC), electrical rough ins (still need to do the electrical finishing after we paint), spray foam, and drywall.  My attic design plan centers around keeping as much space as possible.  We are having built in storage in the knee walls instead of just blocking them off, and having a cathedral ceiling instead of just putting sheet rock to the roof rafters.  Apparently this makes sheet rocking and mudding and tapping into a super difficult long job, because instead of having a box you have all kind of angles and small spaces to get into.  Apparently our drywaller did not realize how difficult the job would be (our contractor hired him) and almost walked out the second day.  Our contractor's project manager (the guy in charge on the job site) had to come over and talk him into staying to finish. 

Our attic view as you walk into the space after  first day of dry wall

Right now as I type our attic is being mud and tapped, apparently this should take about a week to finish.  Next up is priming.  Our contractor will be doing the priming with Sherwin Willams vapor barrier paint in order to meet code for a vapor barrier (only necessary if you use open cell spray foam).   Finally I can start thinking about fun stuff like decorating and it's starting to look like a living space.

Our attic after first day of dry wall

The DIY Projects we will be doing on this project are painting (which should be quite fun with the stairs and cathedral ceiling), install the vinyl plank floors, and paint and glaze or original wood windows (I'm currently working on this now).

Update we are done! See our final results in Part 3: Final Results! Tons of Built in Storage

Check out my Attic Remodel board on Pinterest to see my inspiration and my Dream Craft room board, and if you missed Part 1 of this series (the before and our design plan) check it out here.