Building in Second Life

Recently I purchased some land in Second Life, on the prestigious island of Caledon.  For those that are not in Second Life, Caledon is a Victorian/Steampunk island (or group of islands), with a great community.  Many are dedicated to education in all it's forms, so getting help is quite easy.  I found a couple of homes that fit the part, and I'm looking forward to posting them. 

Of course, there is a slight problem:  furniture.  While I intend to use my new home as a learning center, people need a virtual place to rest their virtual behinds and relax.  Well, I found many of the furniture pieces were pretty expensive (relatively).  Why?  Isn't it just scripted objects?  I found the answer to that when I tried to build my own couch.  

<b>Building a Couch</b>
The couch I knew was going to be difficult, but I wanted more furniture than what I found for sale.  So, I thought I would build my own. I started with five prims (or primitives, the building blocks of objects in Second Life), and made them the padded areas.  I then built a back and bottom using an additional 5 prims.  These I textured as walnut (because I liked the color), using a wood grain finish.  I then added 8 more prims for the feet.  Once done, I linked them all together into one object by selecting them all and hitting CTRL-L, and added physics to it (so that it will stay on the ground).

All in all it took me 3 hours to make, and the finished product looks like something that came from a High School woodworking project from a student that wasn't that keen on the project.  But, it's my first attempt at building something, so I'm proud of it.  Once the house is complete, I'll post a link to it.  ^_^ 

So, now I know why people charge so much for their furniture.  Granted, once it's complete they never have to build it again, and can even make additional changes to it and create a whole new piece of furniture.  But as it took me 4 hours to make something that amateur, I would almost hate to see how long it would take to make something more polished.  But then, time will tell as I intend to keep up this project.