Check out the forum over at
Project Guitar.com :: Guitar Project.com
They have all sorts of build threads. Great techniques, and ideas. Before buying or carving anything, I would definitely read through a hundred or so build threads
Here's a link to the forums "build thread"
In Progress and Finished Work - Project Guitar Forum
And here's a recent build thread for a Les Paul as a fer instance...
Lpish Build - In Progress and Finished Work - Project Guitar Forum