swindmill

My house has a bedroom and bathroom in the finished attic. We had our first rather warm day here since I bought the place and I can tell that it's going to be HOT up there. There is one vent for the HVAC system in the bedroom, and it's not a huge space. What steps can I take to make it as cool as possible up there in the warmer months? There is a small unfinished space in the attic, with a single vent at the front of the house.

Wuzzat?

In the SW corner of the house?
We use a 5K BTU window unit, but fans can go a long way to reducing the apparent temperature.

swindmill

The finished side is the south side of the house, and the relatively small unfinished portion (front of the house) faces north. There are only skylights, so a window unit is not an option. I do have a 32 in. ceiling fan in the middle of the bedroom. Let me know if there is anything else I can do. I am in the process of adding a walk in closet to the unfinished portion, so there will actually be very little unfinished area, if that matters.

Wuzzat?

You could find an AC that fits between studs on 16" centers and cut a hole in an exterior wall.
A vented skylight is another measure you can take.
You might also try a duct booster fan, but the Stack Effect [hot air rises] is fighting you while trying to cool this area. This same effect will help some with the heating.

According to
Heating & Cooling Degree Days - Free Worldwide Data Calculation
your Cooling Degree Days are about the same as mine, 1500. My area gets very humid in the summer which is an additional burden on the AC; I don't know about your humidity levels.