Foundation Notes

Some of the most fascinating buildings are on a steep slope, straddling boulders or some other location that might startle the viewer.  I can think of no more interesting a house than one perched across a stream with glass flooring. 
The issue is, that you need some kind of foundation under your house, and an inexperienced person could find building in such a location extremely challenging.  Also, Frank Lloyd Wright did his "Falling Waters" house in just such an extreme location, and now they are spending many times the original cost of the house to correct the mistakes this great architect made, as well as the ravages of time in such a location.  If  Frank can foul it up, think what you can do.
If you are truly going to make a small house, there should be no reason that you cannot find a nice flat spot in even a dramatic location where you can site the house.  Even in a featureless location, you should be thinking about a place where the land falls away from the house in all locations.  A high spot on a flat lot is always possible, and even a few inches can make the difference between a rotting sill and solid forever.  You can raise your foundation slightly and use the excavated material from the prep work to make a slope all round the foundation.   Even pressure treated lumber will not save you forever.  If you are building to last you through your last few years of life, or a few years while you do a temporary job or attend university, then...just keep the water out of the house and don't worry about it.  But, if you are twenty to sixty, that is a long time for an ill sighted house to withstand moisture.  Even masonry has water problems...Ask anyone in England with "rising damp".
One could conceivably, run a couple of huge "I" beams across a gorge or from boulder to boulder on a forest location.  Just drill holes in the rocks and put cemented in or epoxied in bolts down to secure the beams to the rock.
If you live in the northern tier in the US or in Canada, You will want to go down about four feet.  This will get your foundation below the frost line. 
When the ground freezes in the winter, it will freeze right down into the earth.  The water in the earth expands and will lift a house right off the ground.  You might of course build on skids or on rocks or blocks directly in the ground.  A building will just float on the freezing and unfreezing soil.  There are problems with this though.  If you have systems that go into the ground, your house may be moving in relation to pipes, electrical wires, septic/sewer pipe, or anything else you may have.  All of this may crack or stretch, causing more and more problems as the house ages.  A very small house might be made rigid enough to survive such movement, but lumber, as it gets longer, may flex or crack.  You may never notice this in your foundation, but you would eventually see your doors and windows going out of square and refusing to open and close with time.
Your little poet's pavilion will probably be just fine resting on the ground or on pads or blocks, but anything larger will have to be on a good foundation. 
One option is to build with a minimal foundation when you have no money and need to get shelter, and then just drag your tiny house onto a great foundation when you can afford one.  This will work, and it was certainly not uncommon.  My uncle had a series of beach cottages joined together and placed on foundations after they had been around for years to make a large house.  The only issue is that a building can be dragged out of square in the moving and plaster board, plaster and tile can all be ruined as they flex.  Plank paneling, on the interior can take a lot of flex however.  I hate wood interiors myself, but it might be just the thing for many people.  I do like nice wood paneling...that is raised paneling like in the colonial period.  Even knotty pine is beautiful when done this way.  I will discuss colonial interior finishes later.  Note the post on Feather Edge Paneling under "Making Space Saving Partition Walls"  that follows this one.

Option one
Dig down four feet for the entire perimeter of the house.  Remove even huge stones if the bottom of the stone is above the four foot mark. It may rise with the frost and crack your foundation.  Check with your town or with a county extension office to see what foundation depths your area may need.
Make certain that the bottom of the trench is broad and flat.  Weight of a building may drive a pointed bottom deeper into the soil.  Build a wooden or a foam double wall on top of the footing, and pour concrete into it.  Alternatively you could use concrete blocks, field stone, brick or dressed stone to raise the walls of the foundation.  It should rise several inches above ground level at least.  Local codes may dictate how far above the ground it may need to be.  Colonial period houses were not very high off the ground, but wooden sills at the time were often more than a foot thick and resisted rot for centuries.  Back fill the excavated soil, trying to return the subsoil to the deeper areas and the topsoil to upper levels.  Plants will love you if you do not try to plant them in subsoil.
Specifics of dimensions and method will be discussed later.

Note that unreinforced masonry, in brick, blocks and stone will literally fall apart in earthquakes.  You may think your area is immune to such events, but don't you believe it.  Some of the seemingly most stable areas are most at risk.  The lower Mississippi Valley, New England, etc. may be ticking time bombs.  Poured foundations may crack, but they are less likely to turn to mounds of debris. 

Option two
The first colonials just arranged their post and beam house frames on a number of large stones.  Again, sills were enormous, and Post and Beam frames are exceptionally flexible, as are all the interior and exterior finishes.  Planks and shingles glide past each other much easier than plywood.  Plywood is a great stabilizer, good in many applications, but it has it's drawbacks. 
In the period, a large stone was situated beneath each post in the house frame as that was where the weight was concentrated.  A great drawback was that the building was raised off the ground.  This exposes the underside of the house to cold and vermin.  I often thought this would be overcome by screwing overlapping aluminum to the underside of the floor and filling the cavities with insulation.
Another drawback is the difficulty of getting all the stones at the same level.  Do not "Bank" your house with bales of hay or straw, or attach tar paper or plastic around the foundation of the house as many people did in the north when I was a child.  This traps moisture against the building and could rot your house sill and lower portions of wall studs.
A modern dimensional lumber building, would need to have the concentrated points of weight identified and supported, and the sills would have to be thicker than average to remain stiff over the gaps between the stones.  I will eventually discuss Post and Beam construction in detail.  If you love being the consummate craftsman and are patient, this could be a wonderful alternative for you.

Remember too that your wood does not need to be in contact with the soil to rot.  It is also easy to initiate deterioration just from the splash of rain, even if the wood dries soon after getting wet.  Rain falls and the drops hit the soil.  Soil is a diverse mix of elements.  It can be sand, gravel, any number of minerals, but what we see on top is usually a compost of vegetation that accumulates over the centuries.  In that vegetatation are all sorts of funguses, bacteria(both good and bad) etc.
When the raindrops hit the soil, they Splash, and over time, those splashes will transfer some of those funguses, etc. to your wood.  ROT!
I have included a picture in my crude sketching style of a colonial solution to this issue.  Of course the higher off the ground that you build, the less likely this is to be a problem.

The Right Size

With a building that has a timber foundation, sitting on piers etc, you can easily make alterations to your original house cell as your needs change.  If, however, you decide you need more room than you originally planned, and you have put your original cell on a full foundation, whether it be a slab or full basement, you will run into problems. 
Additional rooms attached to your original house will have to have a foundation joined to the old one.  It would be difficult to add to a foundation seamlessly.  You will likely have air infiltration, a seam in your slab etc.  Plus, a full foundation will probably be better if you can move from one part to another, meaning that you will have to cut a doorway into the old foundation. 
The best way to avoid growth problems is to be realistic about your needs in the beginning. Young people need to amuse themselves in long winter months which sometimes leads to additional members of the family, grandchildren come to live with you, children move back home or you need a caretaker or caregiver, etc.
There are several ways to head off or cope with this eventuality. 

First,
Consider moving some of your activities to a new building, freeing up space in the old building.  You may have built  a studio or office in your original house.  Move it to a separate structure, which may need only a minimal foundation and few amenities.  Minimal electric service, no bath etc.

Second
An entirely separate house for In-laws or children.  Keep them out of your hair by building a new building from scratch.  This will mean that you have thought about property line setbacks, septic systems etc in advance.  Planning for the eventuality of adding a building, and siting your original in such a way that you will not have conflicts will save you lots of headaches.

Third
Design your original house with a summer kitchen, porch etc. that shares your original foundation.  This will allow you to simply upgrade the structure for full living space.

Fourth
Design in pavilions.  Plan on a central building, with dependencies in a logical arrangement around it.  Perhaps covered walkways will connect guest suites, or board walks will wander through the woods to private accommodations.  A bridge may lead you across a gorge or stream to another building.  Again, setbacks will have to be kept in mind when you make your original plan.  Keep in mind too, that zoning, property line setbacks etc. may change over time.  Leave plenty of space, especially if your lot is not large, or the population is growing rapidly in your area.  This may force your town to rethink their plan.
Your little house may be necessary for a time when money is tight, but as your needs change and money issues lessen, you may add buildings to eventually become a large compound.

One of my favorite memories is a retreat that I attended as an art teacher in Maine.  A large group headed for Haystack on Deer Isle.
Glacier scoured granite islands have a thin layer of soil on them with wind stunted fir, spruce and pine crowning the level areas and clinging to the crevices down cliffs that descend steeply into the sea. Beneath them is a forest floor thick with ferns, mounds of peridot and emerald green moss, lichen and blueberries.
A main building and several studio buildings occupied the high ground that had most of the flat land on the site.  A large deck occupies a central position with a flagpole and benches.  From the deck, a wide staircase, broken by landings descends down the granite slope toward the sea.  A couple of landings down, boardwalks turn off to either side, snaking through the woods.  Along the boardwalks were tiny guest cabins, and one shower and bath.  There were several of these side path levels, each lower down the ever steeper hill.  At the bottom, the stairs ended in a landing, from which you could clamber down to the water.  Icy cold in October, when we were there, it was a rite of passage to go down to the sea and skinny dip in the frigid water in the wee hours of the morning.
Everything shrank of course.  My room-mate at the time met me on my way back to our room and poked me in the arm and hip.  "You skin," he said.."its all....consolidated."  Indeed, I bet I could have fit into a much smaller outfit after a dip in that water.

This wild and difficult location made for spectacular views, interesting and charming guest accommodations.  Sometimes the most difficult sites result in the very best living spaces.

Sandy

We have a friend in Florida.  She worked hard and accumulated a good nest egg.  But the current economy was not kind to her, and the insurance rates after hurricanes made it worse.  She had to sell one of her houses there.  She had rented one and lived in the other.  She did not have a lavish lifestyle, but she did live well.  Her house was always clean and attractive with a number of family heirlooms.  She could not sell her house for a long time, and it was weighing on her budget.  She did not know what she was going to do if she did not get what she wanted from her house. 
My advice to her was to build small, or find a tiny house with a beautiful  little garden.  She would not have the square footage, but she could lavish the best finishes, the finest furniture and the most elegant decorations on a very small space.  She could live like a royal in a small space in that way, and her friends would always enjoy visiting there.  Also, the maintenance would be minimal as she got older.
This is also my advice to you. 
Remember that a big Italianate house with rooms the size of a small house or a big suburban modern house, costs a fortune to heat.  You would spend a year's salary to put up Gracie hand painted oriental wall paper in a room that size, but if you are looking at 12x12 rooms, even the most precious silks and hand made furnishings and antiques and floor coverings suddenly become possible because the scale is so much smaller.  Remember too, that if you want to live in an elegant space, you only need one beautiful object to set the tone of a space, while filling the rest of a space with basic and utilitarian furnishings using good neutral colors etc. to blend with your treasures..

Lets just build something, shall we?

There is a ton that we should talk about before we get to a serious house.  But, I think that if we just forge ahead, we can do a little, or in this case a not so little project to get started.  We can discuss new issues as they arise, and perhaps that is the fastest way to learn.  I think we should start with the little woodland pavilion.  This would be a great start for someplace to sleep while getting your real house together or a place to store tools while you work on other projects.  It could be a little poet's house, where you could write or draw, or even make music in privacy.  It could be a romantic woodland bedroom, with a large branch hanging from the ceiling, wrapped with Christmas lights to be a chandelier.  Put a lovely canopy bed out there with candle sconces on all the walls or on candle stands like 250 years ago, or put all you need for a simple lifestyle- get away from it all for the summer(or winter) or the school year away at university.  It could also be a place to get your kid out of your house because all he wants to do is sit and play video games at full volume.
I will make a plan that will have three variations.  In one there will be a window on the side and back walls and a glass door on the front.  In the second, you can put a stationary window in the back, like a salvaged church window, or modern stained glass panel.  In the third, there will be just a plain solid wall to place a bookcase or headboard against.
Thomas Jefferson lived in a similar sized house on his farm...estate...at Monticello for a couple of years while he built his famous mansion there.  I have no idea where he stored his electronic equipment, but surely you can find a way with all our modern advances.  He installed a tiny spiral staircase in one corner to access the basement which, since it was built on a slope, was a daylight walkout.  But he brought his wife to live in this tiny space.  If he could stand it,(or perhaps the better phrase is: if she could stand it.... so can you. 

 Take a look at this tiny house on Youtube:          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDbrUk2xYBo.
  

Begin with your site and foundation.

Take note of drawings of all steps included below the text.

You have chosen a site which is higher than the rest of the terrain on your land.  As we are going to build this 12x12 foot "house" on Sonotube or several stones in the colonial manner, you should not site this on a precipitous slope, cantilevered over open space etc, unless you are prepared to put in the appropriate foundation.
I do not like high posts supporting a house.  It is a good idea to have access to the underside of your building, but building too high off the ground, especially in areas where there is plenty of wind, can cause severe strain on the concrete posts from twisting and buffeting.  I will talk about building off the ground slightly and back filling and using a colonial style perimeter to the house site.  That will give you easy access to the underside of the house while keeping you close to the ground as possible.  Also, when you are close to the ground, it is wise, if you live in termite areas, to take appropriate precautions.  See your county extension office.
We in the north-eastern part of the country have deep frosts.  While there may be a trend for warmer winters, it is best to work with the worst case scenario.  Plan on 48 inches deep for your foundation footings.  Again, local county extension offices will help you adjust for your area.  When in doubt, always error on the side of caution.  Soil type will also alter the requirements.  You may be trying to avoid local authorities, so again, always error on the side of caution and go deep, then you cannot be challenged if discovered later.  Do your best to build to code or better.
Of course discovery and local authority is not the real issue.   IF YOU DO NOT GO DEEP ENOUGH, YOU MAY HAVE YOUR FOOTINGS THRUST RIGHT OUT OF THE GROUND, OR UNEVENLY MOVED SO THAT AFTER A WHILE YOUR DOORS AND WINDOWS NO LONGER FIT AND INTERIOR FINISHES MAY CRACK.

You need to plan on support under all four corners, and along the walls under each side of the windows and doors. They need not be directly under the windows and doors, but spaced evenly around the perimeter of the sills so that those locations are well supported.  Since the openings will be centered on each wall, I would place the posts about at every third of the distance.  The center of the corner support posts should be just in from the actual corner, and the centers of the side Sonotubes should allow for bolting through as well.  You should place anchors protruding from the concrete in such a way that they will extend through the sills in order that washers and nuts can be screwed on to hold the building down.  If this is a building that is likely to be moved, this may not be an issue, but I am afraid that building inspectors will insist.
We will be building a 12x12 building, and it is probably heavy enough that only a tornado would move it, but better safe than sorry.  If you omit the anchors because of plans to move the building, you should anchor it as soon as a permanent location is chosen, and access to the sills for this purpose should be planned on.  Tall baseboards (a good idea for a nice interior look anyway) and a border of planks picture framed around the perimeter of the floor as a decorative feature will cover any work you have to do to access the sills.  The floor planks would be a wonderful place to splurge on fabulous hardwoods...Birdseye maple and walnut alternating would really make the room. Plain hardwood, cork, bamboo or tile would fill in the field.  Small tiles will be better than large if the possibility of movement is there.  Large tiles will crack with just the slightest movement of the sub floor.

Dig down 48 inches at each post location. Use an auger, back hoe auger, post hole digger, shovel etc..  I am planning on 12 inch Sonotube for each post.  If you have spare lumber, you can construct square forms to pour the concrete into.  This would absolutely require you to remove the wood before burying it as the wood extending right up to the sill might encourage bugs.  Sonotube can be peeled back or left to rot off in time.
You may build a form on the bottom of your very flat bottomed hole, 2x2 feet, and about 10 inches tall.  Alternately, Sonotube and competitors sell forms to make a footing in sort of a squared bell shape.  Once concrete is poured and just starting to firm, for the footing, immediately put your Sonotube in place and fill that as well.  Work quickly. Be prepared.  Make sure that the tube is vertical using a level and it is a good idea to secure the tube in place by burying it while it is held in place, or a couple of lengths of wood are nailed or stapled horizontally to the outside of the tube and extend to the surrounding ground to hold it in place with stakes.  Two people working together will help.  As the footings are being poured one by one, the second person might be preparing the Sonotube or forms for the next step as you progress around the building.

Note:  Do not put a pier under a door.  You might try putting a pier under each side of the door if you wish, for stability.  If you do have some sort of foundation under the door, do not put an anchor bolt or threaded rod under the door as it will only have to be removed to put in the door sill...

As you finish pouring the first post, a mark should be made on the outside of the tube to indicate the level of the concrete.  As soon as the form for the second is prepared, your home made TUBE LEVEL or very long level should be held between the two Sonotubes to determine the correct filling height for the second post, and so on.  You could of course, fill the tube to the very top, and make each form exactly level with the others before you pour. Always check back to the first post as well.  Tiny errors get worse and worse if you only check against the last one poured.  If you are using a long level, check level twice.  After the first try, turn the level over (end to end) so you discover if your level is off a bit.  This is quite possible, especially if your level has had a hard life.  Also the shorter the level, the less accurate.
Starting with the footing, you may stand rebar into the wet concrete in such a way that it extends up into the future location of the Sonotube.  Perhaps three or four would be good.  Do not place these in such a way that they are exposed to the air or soil.  This could start rust on the rebar.  Rust expands metal, and the expanding rebar could crack your foundation in time.  You might also bend a piece of rebar into a square, and submerge it into the footing horizontally while still wet.

Notice the void and seams from pouring improperly

Remember that as you pour cement, you must poke down into the mix with long sticks or a piece of rebar as you pour to encourage any bubbles and voids to fill in or rise to the surface.  Try to mix enough concrete to fill an entire tube at a time if possible, if you must break the pour, work as fast as possible to mix more so that there will not be a seam dividing the two pours.  If someone is helping you, they should be starting the next batch as soon as the last batch is in your wheelbarrow and heading for the pour.  If you have to leave a pour un-finished  I would say it would be best to dig it out and start over unless it is in an unimportant and light weight location.
When the pour is complete, place anchor bolts into the concrete, 5 1/2 inches from the outside edge of the pier,  just as it starts to firm up a bit, or suspend the bolt into the concrete by screwing it at a right angle, through a drilled hole in a piece of scrap wood that will rest on the top of your form as the concrete hardens. Then, just unscrew the piece of wood to free it when ready to continue.
Cover the exposed part of the concrete piers with plastic sheeting squares or garbage bags upside down over the tops of the forms to allow it to cure slowly rather than drying quickly, and to avoid heavy rain or freezing.  A little dampness is a good thing as it cures, but not a beating rain while it is still early in the process..
Be patient.  The inside of the Hoover Dam is still curing all these years after the pour.  It takes time, and will become stronger if you give it that time.  Perhaps this is a good time to finish your work for one weekend, and do the next stage the following week.  Alternatively, since we know the exact dimensions of the wall panels, you could construct them on the ground over a few days while you give the concrete a chance to cure without weight on it.
If you have a yen for the colonial way, but want the stability of deep footings, fill your Sonotubes to just above ground level, plus or minus a bit for the varying thickness of the stones you plan to use under the sills, then lay the stones on top before constructing the sills.  If the stones are large, you need them off the ground slightly so that frost will not lift them off your posts.  Grass and low plantings will cover the gap, and it will look like the building is resting just on the stones.  Be prepared with a cold chisel to chip off layers of stone to lower it to level.  You will not have the option of using anchors in the concrete unless you are into drilling through the stones.  You can purchase ground anchors as a substitute.  These are a bit like the anchors that you use to tether a dog on the lawn etc.  This will absolutely be inferior.  If you are doing a larger building and want the stones to be visible, you may have to rig something up yourself that will do both jobs.  Email and we can discuss it.

When your foundation is in, strip off the upper ends of the Sonotube paper, or remove the board forms for the cast piers.  After back filling the holes, fill the entire area under the building to the top of the piers with coarse gravel.  The closer to the bottom of your sill and floor joists, the less likely an animal is likely to try to get in.  You cannot make this fool proof.  A mouse will get into a hole the size of a dime, and if it is not provided with a hole it will make one.  But raccoons might say: "This is just too much trouble for me."  I have often thought that a layer of flashing on the under side of the floor joists, sealed with silicone, or sheets of galvanized metal or even copper if I was rich, might just keep most pests out of the insulation under the house.  Spray foam insulation might work out well too.  Allow the gravel to spill out onto the surrounding earth on a slope.  When construction is complete, flat stones laid on this slope will allow water to drip from the eaves, then bounce the droplets outward instead of back up onto your sills and wooden trim.  This is an old colonial trick, and it works too.

Just an aside....
Another colonial trick is to build a series of X shaped crosses of wood that will straddle the ridgepole of your roof.  A "V" troth made of lumber is laid into the resulting cradles to form a sort of gutter. The ends of the troth are blocked with wood as well.  Fill this troth along the ridgepole with lime.  The rain will over flow the troth on a regular basis, dissolving a bit of lime and allowing it to soak the wooden roof shingles as it trickles down.  The roof will last much longer, look fresher and lichen and moss will hate it.

Making Space Saving Partition Walls 1

Just a little warning.  When this or any joined wooden construction is assembled, leave the joints a little tight in the Summer as it is likely to have expanded in the moist atmosphere.  In the Winter, make sure the assembly is quite loose as the winter dryness makes the wood smaller.  The length of a piece of wood does not change dramatically, but the width and thickness can change significantly.  Keep tabs on the humidity trends before doing fine construction in wood.  Also, very wide boards can split out nails and pegs as the expand or contract.  It is wise to minimize nails and pegs in very wide boards.

Anyone who has worked with a small space will realize what a blessing it would be to reduce the thickness of a wall from 4 1/2 inches to 3/4 of an inch.  Cut door openings out of it, and simply put door casings on either side of the opening like bread on a piece of cheese in a sandwich.  Use a thin door made from the pieces you carefully cut out of the opening, with beveled battens screwed to one side to keep it rigid and to hold the panels together.
A jointer would make this a much easier job, but those are not an easy purchase to make.  You might try applying to an industrial arts teacher at a local school.  Curiously, specialized hand planes would also make this easier though hand work is increased.

Here is a quick sketch....Sorry I don't have a drafting table set up...I think the boards are a bit warped!...of how to make Feather Edge Paneling.  In old houses, especially from the 18th century, these might have been applied as a wall covering, as the paneling horizontally or vertically under the chair rail, or vertically as a true partition wall.  We are using slightly thinner wood these days and if a true colonial look is desired, the planks would be better if the surface were planed lengthwise with a slightly curved blade.  That is probably impractical for most people today.
The tongue should be nearly a sharp edge, and the tongue should fit loosely into the groove.  When the wood expands and contracts, you do not want the swelling tongue to split off part of the plank that it fits into.

1.  Start with random width pine planks.  I would think that you should use the widest you can lay your hands on.  Nothing less than 8 inches up to the widest possible.  Do mix the widths, they would have. Keep in mind that the planks must be securely fastened no matter where you apply them as the wider ones will want to warp a bit as they dry.

2.  Start by ripping a 1/8 inch deep groove about 2 inches from the edge of the board. Try all these measurements on a scrap before doing it with your good boards.

3.  Standing the board on edge, and getting another set of hands to keep it steady, bevel cut from the depth of the groove to the edge of the plank at about the 3/8 to 1/2 inch mark.  Build a jig to steady the plank at the correct angle.

4.  On the opposite face of the plank, plane down the edge or use the saw again, to form a nearly sharp edge.  It may be as little as an inch from the start of the bevel to the edge, as this side is the less decorative side of the panel if it will show at all.

5.  Start with the opposite edge of the same boards.

6.  On the other edge of the board, use a quarter inch bead router blade to cut a bead the entire length of the plank.  Clamp a few boards together to form a flatter surface for the router to ride on, just to keep it steady.  Notice the detail in the drawing even if it is amateurish.  That is the correct profile, though others did appear and would look just as nice if not trying to be historically correct.

7.  Stand the board on edge again, and rip a 1/4 inch deep groove in the edge of the plank with one pass on the saw.  you may also run the groove at just a bit off the mark, then turn the plank around to run it through from the other direction to get it slightly wider.  NOTE...Do all of the boards you intend to use at once.  You do not want to be trying to reset these angles and widths for more boards and have them look exactly the same. 

7.  The top of a partition was often not finished at all, just nailed to the unseen side of a beam, but you may secure them the same way at the top and bottom if you like, and even finish them off with crown moulding and baseboards.  Nail a simple moulding to the floor, following the line of the intended partition.  You could use any moulding you like, keeping in mind that you will be washing floors, banging a mop against them etc.  Half round will do, a simple ogee or shoe moulding...whatever you like.  Secure to the floor with finish nails, or use reproduction cut nails.  With cut nails, you must pre-drill the holes, and perhaps wiggle the drill bit along the length of the grain so the hole is oblong at the surface, and the wide part of the nail must follow the grain of the wood if it is not to split the moulding.  Space them closely together as this will strengthen the wall.  Stand the planks up from ceiling to floor against the first moulding, making sure the tongues are engaged into the grooves.  Place and nail the second moulding, baseboard etc. on the opposite side.

If you have cut the groove properly, the inside or less decorative side will be almost flush, with just a bit of the bevel showing that leads into the groove.

Correct fit and two variations.

These walls were almost never raw wood or stained etc.  They were almost always painted with flat milk paint.  However since this is your wall...do as you please.  Use wood with a minimum of knots along the worked edges, but they would have ignored a couple of small knots here and there in an average house.

You could also do this in a nice native hardwood if you have the skills...walnut...cherry...birdseye maple? figured hardwoods can be a nightmare to work, so be careful.

Space Saving Partition Walls 2

Just a little warning. When this or any joined wooden construction is assembled, leave the joints a little tight in the Summer as it is likely to have expanded in the moist atmosphere. In the Winter, make sure the assembly is quite loose as the winter dryness makes the wood smaller. The length of a piece of wood does not change dramatically, but the width and thickness can change significantly. Keep tabs on the humidity trends before doing fine construction in wood. Also, very wide boards can split out nails and pegs as the expand or contract. It is wise to minimize nails and pegs in very wide boards.

I get some great ideas from Alfred Hitchcock.  This has not resulted in any murders...YET, but time will tell. 
If you have ever seen the movie: "To Catch a Thief", with Cary Grant and Grace Kelley, then you will perhaps remember the villa on the hillside above the Riviera coast where Cary Grant lived.  In this villa, there was a wrought iron staircase leading to a landing.  On this landing was a wall that separated his bedroom from the rest of the villa.  It was no more than a raised panel wall, of only one thickness.  Raised panel woodwork is done no better than in France.  This particular wall was probably made from Chestnut, though Pecan and Fruit wood come to mind.  Unfortunately, fruit woods are rare in wide boards. In this country we could use Walnut or Cherry, or Birdseye, Curly or Tiger Maple.  I go for the medium browns myself.  If your pocketbook does not stretch into the hardwood range, knotty pine would be wonderful if stained to a nice Punkin orange(a colonial and 19th C product) or even pickled.  Paint with diluted white paint, allow to sit a moment and wipe it off.
Well, why not put this to use here in our limited space.

Now is a good time to discuss the Golden Mean.  this is a ratio of length to width of a rectangle, building facade, etc., that is particularly pleasing to the eye.  Basically, if you are making a book case to stand against your wall, the ideal proportions would be: (if you are going to your 8 foot ceiling, just choosing a round number for conveniences sake,) 8 feet high by about 5 feet wide.  the ratio, rounded off to a convenient number is 1 to 1.61 as an ideal relationship of height to width.  This can be applied to many design decisions.  How about height of chair rails in relation to wall height, shapes of panels on a door or a wall in this case, window height to width...all sorts of things.  keep it in mind when designing this wall. 
Also, it is a good idea to look at all sorts of old paneled walls and doors in antique houses in your area.  And remember too, that such research issues should be a pleasure to research rather than a chore.
If you have the resources, do not forget that you could easily go to a building materials salvage yard and buy half a dozen identical doors and make a wall from them!  this is true of all sorts of building materials, from fireplaces and windows to sinks and toilets.
Draw a design on paper of the size and shape of panels and how the wall will fit into the wall opening.
the ends will be an issue if you make a mistake, but remember you can place mouldings in the corners next to adjacent walls to fill gaps or to minimize a too wide board.
Basically, this is a very simplified paneled wall.  I do not intend to teach you to make the real thing here.  That is just beyond my powers of description, and there are a number of sources for designs for fine woodwork.  No, this is a Pseudo raised panel wall.

 

 

Just a snip of the wall from "To Catch a Thief"

The panels are large full height rectangles probably in chestnut wood. 

The door is the panel on the right.

 

 



You will need an upright board for the ends of the wall at right and left,  there will be upright boards dividing the raised panels all along the wall.  you will have to design this wall and determine the correct number for your wall once you know how this works.  there will be top and bottom horizontal panels in each gap between the upright boards, dividing horizontals between each raised panel, and finally the raised panels themselves.

You must be very careful, though not anal about you design, as it must really all be cut out before you assemble it.  The end boards can wait for last as they might be the parts that have the greatest variables.

The upright boards will have a groove cut the length of the edges of the boards.  This should be about 1/4 of an inch wide, and about as deep.  Try to make this dead center on the edge.  You can do this by setting your rip fence on a table saw 1/4 of an inch from the rip fence with 1/4 inch of the blade exposed.  Test on a piece of scrap wood.  (if you live in a very dry or damp part of the country, or in an area where humidity varied wildly, you may want to do this 1/2 inch deep and alter the rest of the boards accordingly.)
Run the edge of the board through the saw with an extra pair of hands to help, then turn the board around and run it through with the other face of the board against the rip fence.  This should give you the 1/4 inch groove, centered.  Do this on all edges of all the upright boards.

Make a wider board for each end of the wall, but only groove one edge of each board.  these end boards may be shaved down a bit to fit as necessary.

If you will put a door in one of these walls, you will do a one grooved edge board for each side of the door, except from the top of the door to the ceiling where a solid board will fit above the door.
Make the door of a single raised panel framed by four boards.  See illustration.

Now you will have to measure the intended gap between the uprights, and add 1/2 inch.  these boards should be about the same width as the width of the uprights, or a bit narrower. 
using the same set up of the rip fence, run the ends of the boards, lying flat on their sides through the saw.  This will begin cutting the shoulders of a tenon on either side of the board.  See illustration.  Run the board through again, this time pulled slightly away from the fence to remove any remaining wood from the end of the tenon.  See illustration.
Now turn the boards on edge, and run them through as you did the uprights to make a groove on the edge of each, both edges.

Make a panel just like the other horizontals, about 1 1/2 times as wide for top and bottom, work the ends the same way, and do only one edge groove in each.

Now the raised panels.
Cut the panels 1/2 inch wider and 1/2 inch longer than the allotted space, to fit onto the grooves.  Set the rip fence 2 inches from the blade.  Run all four sides for the flat surface of the panels through the saw to form a sort of tic tac toe pattern of grooves.  now set the rip fence less that 1/4 inch from the blade, and tilt the blade away from the fence.  Measure the edge of the panels so that the blade will cut from the bottom of the groove you already cut to the edge of the wood, leaving a thin edge to go into the grooves of your wall boards.    Do at least one entire panel as a test before committing a good piece of wood to it. See the illustration. 
Run all of the panels on all four sides till the bevel of the edges are completed for all panels.

Note that doing the entire wall in the same size panels will reduce the headaches in designing this wall, but varying the sizes, like square at the top, rectangular in the middle and very long rectangular at the bottom, will make a very pleasing wall.

Sand everything then assemble the wall.

Using a moulding of your choice, glue and/or nail a moulding to the ceiling or a beam following the course of the intended wall.  Use a plumb bob or a washer attached to a thread to hang a line from the top moulding to locate the position of the floor moulding.  The flat sides of the mouldings should face the intended position of the wall.  Start at one end of the wall, but placing the first end board snug against the wall.  If the wall is uneven, you have two choices. 
1. You will either use a level to find the straightest upright course possible, and tack it in place top and bottom.  Later you will put a moulding over the gap against the wall. 
2. The second choice is to use a level to tack the upright board in place temporarily.  Using a compass, lay the pin side against the wall, and drag the compass down along the wall while the pencil side of the compass draws a line on the board.  Then cut the board to match the line, but work as close to the edge of the board as possible. 
If you are using the second method, you should be starting out with more board width than is needed to complete the entire wall.   When you cut the boards down to fit against the wall you should come close to the correct measurement for the wall width.  You can always take a bit more off either side or one to make it fit.  Good planning!!!

Now push the board as snug as possible to the wall, and against the mouldings top and bottom.
Tack in place with a couple of thin finish nails, partly driven through the board and into the floor and ceiling(or overhead beam), at an angle.
Next begin with one of the bottom horizontal pieces.  Slide the tongue into the groove of the upright and push it down against the floor.  Add a raised panel to the grooves in the bottom board and side board.  
Next add one of the two grooved horizontal boards.  Continue to the ceiling, ending with one of the single edged boards with the solid edge toward the ceiling.
Add a double grooved upright board against the stack of smaller boards, working the tongues into the grooves of the new upright.  Continue across the wall, ending with a single edged board against the opposite wall.  You may need to trim the last board or add a moulding against the wall as mentioned at the beginning of the wall. 
Make sure, if the weather is humid, that you have pushed everything as tightly together as possible.  If the weather is dry, do not push as snugly to allow for expansion in damp weather.
If all is together properly, finish nailing in all the finish nails that have been holding the boards in place.  Add a second moulding on the back of the wall at the floor and ceiling of the wall, and glue and/or nail into place snugly against the wall.
This will create a raised panel look at the front of the wall, and a more Shaker panel look at the back of the wall.
Sand everything and paint, varnish or wax.

If you have decided to put a door in the wall, end the wall with a single sided upright on either side of the future door opening.  Add a filler piece in the space over the door opening.  You may also have a transom window made to fit in the opening with four or five panes of glass, or even a single piece of stained  or textured glass or crafted stained glass panel. 
To do this, you must cut a groove in just the portion of the side boards that will hold the cross board, cleaning the groove out to fit the tongue at the bottom with a narrow chisel.  See illustration.
Put the three boards of the door casing on the side of the paneling that does not have the door swing.  The casing should be smaller by half an inch on the two sides and the top of the door, creating a lip for the door to catch on when it is closed. 
On the swing side of the door wall, just trim the edge with moulding or casing to fit exactly around the opening.
If you have good woodworking skills, make the door with the same panel pattern as the wall, using through tenons and and mortises.  If you do not have such skills, you may make the door to fit using two single edge grooved uprights and the panels and rails as you did with the rest of the wall.  You will then have to glue and nail solid boards, to the back side of the door to fit inside the casing of the back of the door.  This will hold the rails, panels and uprights together.   Rout a moulding around the entire back side of the door brace, either before applying it or after.  See illustration.

To be continued