Well, my west Michigan sawyer acquaintance knows of 40,000 board feet of tulip poplar logs about to become available. He will cut these to my specs for $1.20/BF. I am contemplating this, but I can't wait too long as the logs will be cut too short (for use in pallets) by Saturday. This puts me at about $2000 for my framing timbers based on the frame in the "14 Small Timber Frames" book. I think I might temporarily leave out the loft joists. I am also wondering if I need so many rafters for this design as other I have seen use fewer and tie them together.
This is about double my budget, so I have some thinking to do.
