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My house has a small "porch" near the main door. In many years I've been here, I never once used this area that is on the North side of the house as a porch. It tends to collect junk that I need to clear out every couple of years (guess how I spent the morning). Just behind that wall however, there is my master bathroom, that is the smallest a bathroom can practically be: 5x7 feet. I am seriously considering starting a project to enclose that space and expand the bathroom a little.

If I do this however, I plan to do it on my own, requesting all the necessary permits. It's the first time I'd do something like this.

My question is: how would one enclose that area? I guess under the stucco, that I suspect is 1/2 to one inch thick, there must be a lumber structure. Would I need to rip everything apart and simply rebuild it from scratch? Note from the pictures the area is already covered by the existing roof so I will not have to touch that, and it is for this reason I believe I'll be able to do this on my own. I will want to add a window.

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Alessio Sangalli
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This is fairly easy since you have that big header holding the roof up. You would remove the stucco on the header, at the bottom I would probably pull the trim exposing the frame of that short wall. Then I would build a wall with the opening for your window in the space and stucco the outside, once that is sealed up you could open the wall of the bathroom and remove the stucco then finish the floor to ceiling wall inside the porch area, since you are not modifying a load bearing wall you may not need a permit, that is one of the qualifications for getting a permit in my area. But this looks like it is a good idea to me. Check with your building codes department.

Ed Beal
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