A Foundation,
if the dirt is properly packed and drained. All through certain sections of this country there are hundreds of humble dwellings built upon “mud-sills”—in other words, with no other foundation or floor but the bare ground.
I will, however, suppose that you have secured some posts about two feet six inches long and with good flat ends.
Fig. 66.
The better the material you can obtain, the trimmer and better will be the appearance of your house; but a house which will protect you and your tools may be made of the roughest of lumber.
The plans drawn here will answer for common or fine material, but we will suppose that medium material is to be used. It will be taken for granted that the reader is able to procure enough two-by-four-inch timber to supply studs, ribs, purlins, rafters, beams, and posts, for the frame shown in Fig. 69. Two pieces of four-by-four-inch timber, each fifteen feet long, should be procured for sills. If this is inaccessible, two pieces of two-by-four nailed together will make a four-by-four sill. Add to this some tongue-and-grooved boarding for sides and roof, some enthusiasm and good American pluck, and the shop is almost as good as built.