Economics is a very important factor to consider when you are building for others, and even more important when you are marketing your services. I can sit here and go on about my ideal system and how it is vastly superior and all that good stuff, but sometimes as businessmen we simply have to compromise.

There is a difference between the owner/builder who is building his own timber frame and has the freedom to use any method he can dream up and the professional timber framer who has to find the balance between quality and cost. That balance is different for every structure and we do well to remember that.

This system I proposed is not intended to be the perfect system with absolute seal and everything else we have dreams about now and then. Rather, this system is designed to be competitive. It is designed to be practical and open up the world of Timber homes to those who would never afford a spacious open design house clad with SIPs, or would never be able to pay me to give them a traditional infill or whatever else you might see as ideal.

SO back to the main point: Aside from the problem of moisture around the post, what other flaws are there that need to be addressed? What is the widest stud spacing I could reasonably use and still clad the inside with drywall? I need to review Indiana building codes again, sigh...