timber frame without tenon and mortise

[Clover]

All good advice and ideas. I've always did my own drawings when building. It could be a small shed or gazebo, garage or cottage. Just so I can get some idea of scale and loading. I did a 3000 square foot deck on my last house with no corners.  Every one wanted to know how I could do it from my head. I would show them all my drawings and they still didn't believe it. Some people just can't grasp that kind of stuff and it's not because of stupidity, They just don't grasp it. Even where my summer home is located building departments can't understand things out of the norm. You can not build a typical frost proof block foundation. The soil is still too compressive at four feet. Only friction pilings work with steel I beams welded to the top. This is done no where else that I'm aware of. Tell the building departments that your doing a friction piling foundation and again I may as well be speaking Chinese.