Before and after: My broken desk

In June, I moved into a quirky little apartment in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Omaha. It's perfect, because it's close to family and just a short hop to two interstates. It's imperfect in many ways, though, because the house is 119 years old. Corners aren't square, the floor isn't flat, and of course there's no central air. This means: PROJECTS! And so much hammering stuff.

While moving, my computer desk fell apart in my and my friend's hands. We went to heft it up the stairs, and - CRACK! - one side fell off. The wood around some of the embedded screws was totally ripped apart.
I had to fix it, because many things in the room could not be put away until the desk was in place. And more importantly, my computer could not be set up without a desk! With all the expenses of moving - seriously, $125 for the electric company to switch my house's power into my name? - I couldn't just buy a new desk, nor did I want to. The solution, then, involved a ton of wood glue, which you can see below.
Note the mess of drawers and computer stuff all around the floor.

 Luckily, the broken side was the one that is now up against the wall. I was able to be a bit messy with glue and a couple of L-shaped bracket thingies (kind of like this one).

And shazam! A functional desk, that cost just a few bucks to fix.  This was back in June, when I first moved in. I've been doing a bunch of other projects since then. The age of the house means I've had to get creative, trying to make the 1890s construction match my 2012 needs. Mostly, it's a ton of fun. My mother instilled in me a love of projects and problem-solving.  And my budget forces me to fix stuff myself, rather than throwing money at stuff that's broken.

Right now, I'm waiting for the first coat to dry on my newest project. My other desk, in another room, is just for crafts. I decided to paint the top and slide-out tray with chalkboard paint. I figure my crafting desk should be a craft itself, to constantly promote more creativity. Because when you live in a house as old as mine, you can never be too creative!