a new computer table-top - Criteria

Working on the United Brazil wooden legs reminded me that other wood-related projects needed some attention.

The first revolves around my computer desk. My wife and I use our computers side by side. Her desk is an old heavy-duty office desk that weighs around 500 pounds, is solid oak and is chewed up pretty badly. Mine is a cheapie IKEA desk, with the surface all bubbled from too many cokes.

My first thought was to build a new custom table for the two of us, but I had 2 issues:

1. Making a rock-solid custom table or desk with drawers is a LOT of work - and not really needed since the two desks already work great.
2. We may be moving in a couple of years. Did I really want to put all of that work into something that would be torn out in 2 years?

For me, the answer was to create a new table "top" and lay it over the old ones. This had some advantages:

1. relatively cheap (a lot less wood)
2. relatively easy to do (basically just a table top)
3. can still be "custom" without being built-in (more later)

My design criteria:

1. must be a single piece of wood all the way across both current areas (about 13 feet wide)
2. must be rock solid (not slide around)
3. must be level (our desks are currently 1/4 inch off in height)
4. must have a coolness factor