Have you visited any Amish shops yourselves? I have learned from experience that a reputable seller is as important as the builder because they will only work with the better craftsmen and will stand by what they sell. Below is the link for the builder with whom am dealing and I have seen his furniture in person. www.amishfurnitureshoppe.net. I can vouch for the quality of his furniture. He had dining tables and chairs, occasional tables and a bed on the floor at the fair and it had extra supports for the frame which you don't see a lot. I believe they will ship. His prices are really good but I don't know what the shipping costs would be. He is in PA. Also, another dealer I have been speaking to is www.AmishWBF.com. The man's name is Galen and is very knowledgeable and has been very helpful. His prices are great and his shipping is really reasonable. I believe he will be honest with you about the best builders for the set you want. I am really impressed with him. I hope this helps. Regards,

We actually seen some Harden, Stickley, and Durham furniture at a dealer in Jacksonville, FL. The Durham was a white distresssed bedroom suite, I hope most of their stuff looks better than this, backing was not flush, visible staple holes, Definitely not what I was looking for, I had to look fast before the wife discovered it was Durham. They had a Harden gallery and was totally impressed with their quality. Also, the Stickley line was equally impressive. I was quoted approx $7500 for a Durham suite, not sure what to expect with Harden or Stickley, $10k or more? Both Harden and Stickley had some very nice living room furniture as well, My wife loved the Stickley leather sofa. We are still looking though and trying to buy as local as possible, no dealers around here have any stock though.

Hi, My sister happened to have a furniture repair person at her house yesterday and also sometime last week b/c when they moved over the summer, some of the furniture was damaged by the moving company. I asked my sister to show him the pictures and ask him what he thought as well. He actually worked in NC for many years for the NC furniture stores doing exactly what I am having an issue with...repairing furniture before it is shipped to the customer. He eventually left b/c he did not like the deceitfulness that goes on in NC to the end-consumer and says it is actually a fairly common practice unknowingly to the consumer. In my case, it just happen to have split again too early for their liking. In conclusion, as most have said here already... He said it is not a crack from a wood knot. They rarely use pine in manufacturing furniture these days and I agree since American Drew states they "xxx" woods and pine is not listed. What he did say is that it is called a climatic crack and that the wood that American Drew used to make the piece was not dried out (enough). He did say that the red stain is definitely a primer and the piece was already repaired once before. He told my sister that the wood may not dry out for another 2-3 years and that the problem can and most likely will occur again if I settle for the repair. He said do not settle for a repair, you need full replacement. Regardless if it is due to wet wood or shipping damage from AD to Boyles, it has been repaired already. I probably can get a thousand testimonies to that from people in the field like you. I did NOT pay for a repaired piece of furniture!! I would not be so defiant if it was there upon delivery and we did not notice it, but it was not there upon delivery or when it went through Boyles QA Dept. To Duane and Mogator88 - knowing yet another confirmation that this piece has already been repaired once, I am now 100% confident that if I was to send the chest back without a full replacement being dropped off at my house at the time of pickup, I would get the same exact piece back AGAIN. They have already done it once. Now would you call AD and tell them what is going on since it was obviously repaired before. If Boyles repaired it b/c they did not feel like putting in a claim and AD knows nothing about this it is AD's reputation on the line. Or perhaps, it was a Boyle's customer that declined delivery/acceptance b/c it was damaged when it got to their house. Yes hundreds of scenarios, but one common conclusion. Again, how can Duane and the furniture repair man at my sister's house look at the picture and say it has been repaired once before, yet Boyles cannot make that determination without the actual piece in their possession. Fishy to me and you know I will be getting the same piece back, claiming by them it is a full replacement. I guess we just cannot determine if it is wet wood or just shipping damage, but I am not taking the chance. I will not dispute the charge. I agree it will probably agitate them so they will not accomodate me, but I will keep on fighting for a full replacement and will not settle for anything less after all of these confirmations of prior damage that I am receiving. Once this may-hem is done, my review of Boyles in this forum and to others by word-of-mouth will not be very favorable. Thanks again for your support and solid expertise.

The room is 14'2" x 18'10", counting the sliding door bump out. I went ahead and ordered the bedding--my husband thinks it is "okay", but as we looked at other things, he didn't find anything he thought was better than "okay", so he's on board with the purple floral :-). However, jissicam1 has a point--I really want to paint the walls, but if I get the bedding I want, I can afford to let him keep the Shaker Beige walls. (Another plus--leaving the walls the same color is free.) I don't really love the craftsman style--I just like the slats. But he doesn't. We're going to go to the Amish furniture place this weekend and look around. I suspect that we'll end up with a panel or sleigh bed that is fairly simple in its lines but is absolutely gorgeous in terms of the wood. This one is probably too modern for him: but this might not be: People's comments are *really* helping. (and DH will be thrilled someone stood up for him with regards to the walls) (And that people are reminding me that we'll have this furniture a LONG time)