If You Build It, It Doesn't Cost As Much

I've spent a good chunk of my day putting together knocked-down furniture. When we moved to Boise, we shed ourselves of three computer desks and a few shelving units. When we moved back, we realized we didn't have enough of that functional furniture.

My computer is sitting on a donated desk that's maybe 18-20 years old and is exactly like one I abandoned five years ago. It's one of those ubiquitous dark oak veneer desks with the drawer on the right side (it's pre-keyboard drawer) and the split hutch with a small cabinet on the upper part of one side and the other side has facility for a monitor shelf (it's also pre-17" monitors). Also included in the package is a printer stand complete with a slot in the back for feeding tractor-feed paper to your dot-matrix printer and a flat corner wedge to connect the two. I'm grateful to have it but I'm anxiously awaiting August when Wal-Mart and other retailers will get in the back-to-school stock of student furniture. The only problem is I would prefer a large, elaborate desk but they all seem to be taking on a minimalist form due to the popularity of laptops.

My wife now has a new computer desk (that was project one today). It is one of the minimalist style but it is big enough to accommodate her older Dell PC and 17" CRT. She also has a laptop but it died a mysterious death. I thought it was corrupt system files and attempted to reinstall Windows but got a BSOD indicating a memory error. I popped in my MS Memtest CD and, sure enough, her RAM failed every test. That means she either has a bad stick or a bad socket. Either way, it's covered under warranty... now we just have to find the warranty card :(

Project number two was acquiring and assembling a 6' bookshelf for my office. I went to unload some boxes the other day and realized I didn't have any place to put anything. A couple of those shelves were the two I was using before we moved.