how many courses of brick before the wood frame??

[MikeG.]

The funniest thing is that I can see a couple of string lines, to keep things straight :-D

Well it still needs to be straight on plan, so those lines aren't for the coursing but just to make sure the wall ends up in the right place.

 

[Rorschach]

No idea, I found it on google images. Just used it to illustrate my point that the wall they are building is most likely deliberate rather than just a poor job.