People who pay attention to me on Twitter know that I’ve been working, on and off, on a desk for the past few months. I started using it a few weeks ago, tweaked a couple of things earlier this week, and aside from one final thing am content with calling it done.

The desk is made of three parts: The two pedestals, and the top. Very handy for building outside, then assembling inside. I can’t claim the design; it’s one of the plans that come with a Kreg jig system. I didn’t make any changes, other than mounting a cable organizer underneath and cutting a hole in the back of the right pedestal to run hard drive cables. (I also plan to find a better power adapter to hide underneath.)

It’s got its flaws, and I know where they are. You don’t need to point them out. But this was my largest building project to date, and I’m happy with it. In the end I spent about $200 on materials and somewhere between ten and twenty hours on construction. In return, I got a much more solid piece of furniture than I’d get for that amount of money (or more) at an office supply store.

Not bad for a guy who stumbled through a couple of quarters of junior high shop class and avoided the industrial arts for the rest of his scholastic career. (I did have a grandfather who helped me learn the value of doing things yourself, though.)

I find that as I get old, and maybe a litle tired of building the web, that I’m more interested in building little furniture projects (warts and all) than yet another website or Ruby library or something. I also enjoy seeing what others build when they’re away from their computers–be it construction, culinary, music, art, whatever.

What have you built lately?