We finally got the confluence of me being home for a few days and getting some decent weather.  So I was finally able to spend 2 days out getting some of the walls framed.

The outside dimensions of the Art Shack are going to be 11 by 20.  So I decided to frame the walls in 10 foot sections to make it easier to stand the walls.  It means I am going to have far more studs than I need for the weight the walls are carrying, but hopefully, it will be much easier to assemble them together and get it square and plumb.

I was also pretty pleased that I only had one section that was out of square by more than an inch.  I was able to get that rectified by making a 15 foot pipe clamp and squeezing it square.  All of the others were within a 1/4 inch of square on assembly.  So I was able to true those up with just a couple blows from a hammer.

I only have 1 more 10 foot section of the front wall of the shack to frame, then we will be ready to stand them and get some OSB sheathing on to help hold everything nice and tight and square, so we can set the trusses.

My original plan was to not put the headers in above the door and windows until after the walls were standing.  Unfortunately, the way the math worked out on the studs, I had to put the headers in while building the walls.  That means these suckers are HEAVY!  I went with 3 2X10’s for headers.  Yes, that is WAY overbuilt, but it should be solid.

I also finally got the material for building the front porch.  I want the porch on the Art Shack to match the style of the porch on the house.  So I had to order some crazy big material.

The one on the bottom is a 6X10 by 12 feet long and let me tell you, that baby is heavy!  Cutting that one is definitely going to be a measure 3 times and cut once.

Next up is to get the last section of the front wall framed, then we will get them stood, squared and fixed permanently to the concrete pad.  Once that is done, it should get decidedly easier, not less physical, but definitely easier.

So, hopefully by my next installment, we will be working in 3 dimensions!