Framing the walls, pricing estimations!

Hello again! First of all, thank you for your support of this blog and this project. It really means a lot to me.

Now, yesterday I had off from work so of course what does a wee 18 year old like myself do all day? Build a 3D model of framing construction, calculate an approximation of lumber needed to frame a house, and then take a trip to Home Depot at 8pm with a pen and paper. Duh.

Originally, I thought I would just quickly figure out about how much lumber I would need, because I knew that I wanted to price elements out at a retail level, so that I could have a point of reference as I look for good deals on materials. Fast-forward like 8 hours and this is about what I looked like:

First, I called Steve from Trailer Boss, a local trailer dealer, to ask a few questions I hadn't been able to find about specific dimensions of a flatbed trailer. How much deck space is there actually between the wheel wells? How tall is an in-between deck from the ground, compared to a deck-above? Does Trailer Boss sell used trailers for less than the usual $32-3300? Welp, no, to that last question, which was perhaps the most disappointing of all, since I am looking for about $2500 or less. Anyway, I did find out that there are 82in or 6ft 10in between the wheels of a flatbed, and a deck-between is approximately 20in or1ft 8in from the ground, which is included in the max. road height. (http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/road-limits-for-tiny-houses-on-trailers/)

I started my drawing:

http://www.carpentry-pro-framer.com/wall_framing.html

I started by using guide lines to mark out the studs, 16in apart on the long sides and 12in apart on the short, 82in sides. As I continued to build, I didn't like how close the last two studs were to the corners, so I repositioned them to be 16in from the corner beams as well. I followed this guide photo, which a similar version of was given to us by Andrew Morrison at the workshop. The article this guide came from was pretty helpful in explaining the elements to a wall. On the left, under the header piece, this model is showing a Rough Opening for a door, and on the right, under the second header, is a Rough Opening for a window. A Rough Opening is not just the exact size of the door or window you're installing, but a little more space to allow for sealing material, and to allow a little bit of "wiggle room" for your window, because it can actually crack if the wood around it expands and the window is too tight. I'll talk more about window and door installation later. I finished the bottom level of my model. My hypothesis was that the double top plate would line up with the top of the loft planks, making them somewhere around 6'3.

The window I framed would be above the kitchen sink here. I am building my corners as recommended by Andrew in the tiny house workshop. It is what's called a "California Corner" or, more officially "Insulated three-stud corner. This allows for the best insulation configuration, because in other traditional corners, there is a gap where no insulation can be put.

Notice that the 2x4 stud that matches the 4in side of the bottom plate is plumb with the end of the bottom plate that connects with the side of the adjacent plate.

As I moved to the top studs, and totaled the height from the wheels, I discovered that something was not right... I could only make the loft height a little over 3', at the highest point, since I am doing a slanted "shed roof". That's way too small! My original estimations were over 4'. I re-measured my model and found that somehow, I had incorrectly measured the height of the bottom level studs. Perhaps I had not factored in the bottom plate? I'm not really sure.

To fix this problem, I tried a couple routes, but eventually had to strip back the top plates and individually shorten all of the studs. All in all, pretty easy, right? well, until I hit the short wall with the framed window. I saved this image as "noooooo.jpg"

At this point I'd like to point out that you can actually track how long this all took me because the clock is included in the screenshot, which I just realized.

Anyway, I eventually fixed it.

You can see here with the measurements off to the side that the loft clearance is now 6', and the loft is just about 4'. The total height now is 12'5" , which is what I wanted to be plenty clear of the road limit of 13'.

Now, at this point I had a conversation with my mother. I stood up my tape measure to the 6'1", which is plenty to clear my head, and just enough to clear my boyfriend, who will be living in the house this summer when he's out of college, and hardly my dad or brother's, if they come to visit. That being said, I feel pretty content with the height arrangements. And here is the final model!

Then, I counted all the studs, and added up the total lengths of 2x4, and then figured how many 98" (8') lengths, which is what they sell at Home Depot, I would need.