The downside of this approach is that I had quite
a few obstacles- pipes and main duct to deal with right off the
bat. Since the first section of the wall has lots of copper pipes
to work around, I thought about nailing the top and bottom plates,
and then toe nailing the studs (see method 2 of How
to frame a wall).
In the end, I decided to build it on the floor, cut out the necessary
parts of the top plate, then tip it up and nail it into place.
I bought a compound miter saw, a jigsaw, and my 1st load of lumber
over the weekend.
 For
the miter saw, I went with a DeWalt 10" because that's the brand
I've seen a lot of the pros use. Also, it was comparable in price
($197) to most of the other
quality brands. The jigsaw is a Skil 5.0 Amp Orbital Jigsaw. I
went with it over the DeWalt because it was half as much as the
cheapest DeWalt. Hopefully, it will work out OK. I spent over
$400 on my two trips to Lowe's.
Lumber tip: Many people just 'eyeball' the 2x4s they're
purchasing to see if they're straight. A good way to make sure
is to place each one on the floor and roll it to all four sides.
It takes a little time, but you're sure to end up with straighter
boards which will make framing much easier! A little bow on the
long side of the board is OK, but avoid the ones that are twisted
or bowed on the short end.
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