I am new to timber framing and have not taken any courses yet.
The plans were drawn by my girlfriend's father who is an architect in Michigan and checked over by the engineer at his firm. It just seemed that the beams were of rather large size for the span that they cover. The plans do not have sizes for the tenons on them or the number of pegs. They have the cross beam tying in even with the top of the posts. The distance from grade to the bottom of the cross beam is 8' 6". I am not planning on putting a second floor or any heavy storage up there. The snow load for my area is 40 psf.
Hope this info helps
Chris
