Finishing My Attic—Need Some Advice

My house (built in 1937) has a great attic space that is almost begging to be finished. The house is relatively small and has a partially finished basement but I'd like to take advantage of the possibility of getting some more living space out of the attic.

It looks like, at some point, some previous owners had updated this attic a bit. It has newer outlets and windows and is completely framed in.

I'm all for DIY, and would love to do it myself, but I'm pretty lost as to where to start.

1. What is a good first step? Should I have someone come out to look at it to address code issues?

2. Is this a project that I could reasonably work on in small pieces as time and money become available or should it be completed more quickly?

3. Someone recommended spray-foam insulation to me. Is this my best bet or are other types fine as well? I'm a bit put-off by the somewhat hefty price of spray-foam.

4. Anything else I should know about/consider?

Thank you for your help!

 

Welcome to the forums!

I'd first want to know about the floor structure - will the floor joists adequately support the load of a room with furniture? You also need to know what the local codes require if you were to turn the attic into living space.