laura1202 and mogator88 Thanks for both the links. I'm still checking them out. Both Saloom and the Antique Table Made Daily seem to have very nice, high quality tables. I'm impressed and excited to learn that Saloom has a dealer about an hour from my home! Their Hampshire Farm table is "VERY" nice. I wish ATMD had a dealer close too so I could see their work in person. The ATMD has pricing on their website and it doesn't seem out of line with the Amish companies I have received quotes from now. Other than Saloom and Simply Amish, all companies seem to be back east and will charge at least $500+ for delivery to SoCal. Saloom doesn't have pricing but I will find that out when I visit their dealer. Do you have any idea mogator88 if they are comparable to some of the other's linked from this thread? The Simply Amish quote from the store near us was almost $1700 higher for the same table than their online partners and that was without shipping! I don't mind spending what it takes to get a quality table but I also don't want to get taken.... Laura, I bet you cannot wait to get your table. I especially liked the Country French table. And, I know exactly what you mean about your Broyhill table that was less than acceptable. We bought an expensive couch just two years ago and the thing broke down almost immediately. It replaced a quality couch we'd had for 20 years that my sister now has...and DH wishes he had back! LOL Here is a link that might be useful: French Table

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful comments! I love this place - like everyone says, it's been a huge help and inspiration throughout my project. Chris 11895, I do like those Windsor chairs - they are elegant and true to the time of the house, like liriodendron said. Very pretty. Brickton, you really clarified things for me. I guess I admire the urban farmhouse style, but if I'm honest about it, that's not what my kitchen is. So while I love the industrial stuff I keep seeing everywhere, it wouldn't fit my kitchen so well. I do LOVE those resto vintage chairs. But I'm learning that not all the things I love would work well in my kitchen, and I'm ok with that! Farmgirlinky - You're the owner of that kitchen I've been drooling over! I just looked it up and realized that was yours. LOVE. I have the same type of sink, mounted in the same way, with similar soapstone counters. And the same Savon de Marseille soap! I love that fridge and was trying to figure out how to sneak it into my budget but couldn't do it! Love the clear glass door. I like those tractor stools you mentioned - very very nice. I thought you were talking about the ones with real tractor seats before I went to the webpage. Unfortunately, that would pretty much eat up what's left of my budget! Sigh. Liriodendron, good point about sitting in the chair first. And now that I have talked to DH and read your post, I am leaning away from the Wynn chairs. Both of you said the same thing about it having a very PB look, which I see now. Funny how people see different details. Ellaf - The Thonet bar stool is really pretty - I think it would look great in black in my kitchen! It has a vintagey look to it, and it's curvy but not too foofy. The Vienna barstool from Crate and Barrel that beckysharp mentions is similar. Beckysharp, those Stanley ones are cool - kind of vintagey like the Restoration hardware one - but not quite so industrial. Geokid and Kaismom, good points about considering the stools without backs...now I'm putting that in my list. I hadn't considered how the backs would look above the counter; might be nice not to see any backs! I haven't attached the support brackets yet (the counter isn't up) but that's a very good point about considering how they will interact with the chairs. I don't want to keep harping about not banging into things - better to design it so that's not an issue. Well, that was long. Everyone has such good thoughts, I wanted to say thank you. I now have more to consider (maybe windsor, or maybe no backs) but also have ruled out some things (no PB, less chunky). Here are a couple photos of my kitchen in progress - one from the front, one from the back of the area where the bar will be (counter obviously not on yet!). Stove is going...it is leaking gas and new Bertazzoni will be in place soon!

It's a great inexpensive solution to your problem if you actually do have the clearance around it for proper aisle space. A counter height table is easy to find. You can get them off of Craigslist for pennies on the dollar. And they're mobile. You could even tuck a lower height butcher block topped cart under one side if you needed to for additional storage and prep space.

Here is what I added to the tomatoville post. "As for getting nothing from the plant after color break, I'd like to see the scientific data on that." Me too! I think this was the stuff I majored in, back in the day. And I am an exit or two from UC Davis. They study a lot of grapes and tomatoes. Maybe it is the abscission layer. "Once the tomato has reached maturity an abscission layer forms between the calyx and the fruit, ultimately resulting in the fruit falling off of the pedicel." http://www- plb.ucdavis.edu/labs/rost/tomato/Reproductive/dev.html "Development and regulation of pedicel abscission in tomato" "Tomato has been studied as a model system for abscission, as tomato plants develop a distinct AZ at the midpoint of the pedicel and several tomato mutants, such as jointless, have pedicels that lack an AZ. This mini-review focuses on recent advances in research on the mechanisms regulating tomato pedicel abscission... Abstract To shed unfertilized flowers or ripe fruits, many plant species develop a pedicel abscission zone (AZ), a specialized tissue that develops between the organ and the main body of the plan" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462994/ "Before abscission, pedicel AZs attach the flowers firmly to the plant body, but when the AZ cells perceive an abscission-stimulating signal, the adhesion immediately starts to loosen. " Maturity and Maturity Indices - Fruit & Nut Research and Information Center "To most people mature and ripe mean the same thing when describing fruit. For example, mature is defined in Webster's dictionary as: "mature(fr.Lmaturus ripe):l: Based on slow, careful consideration;2a (I):having completed natural growth and development: RIPE (2): havingundergone maturation, b: having attained a final or desired state; 3a: ofor relating to a condition of full development." In postharvest physiol-ogy we consider mqture and ripe to be distinct terms for differentstages of fruit development (fig. 6.1). Mature is best defined by 2a (l) above as "having completed natural growth and development"; forfruits, it is defined in the U.S. Grade standards as "that stage which will ensure proper completion of the ripening process." This latter definition lacks precision in that it fails to define "proper completion ofthe ripening process." Most postharvest technologists consider that the definition should be "that stage at which a commodity has reached asufficient stage of development that after harvesting and post harvest handling (including ripening, where required), its quality will be at least the minimum acceptable to the ultimate consumer."Horticultural maturity is the stage of development at which a plant or plant part possesses.."