Copper beeches have much lovlier coloring, IMHO. I was on a walk in my neighborhood yesterday and saw a Crimson maple and a copper beech side by side. No comparison in beauty, BUT, as you probably know, beeches grow slow. You plant a beech for your children, for the future. There's also a purple leaf plum that eventually gets large enought to be a shade tree, albeit not very much shade. My mom loves those smoke trees, they are fairly large and have good color. I dunno, maybe they've improved on the color genetics of the norway maple, but olive red drabness is what the ones around here do in most cases. Perhaps someone has had a better experience to report. I'm a big fan of natives, I'd plant a copper beech for the future and a japanes red maple for my lifetime. Ya can't beat the beech maple combo for shade and beauty, IMHO, but I'm a prejudiced north country girl. I've been to Lake Geneva, LOVELY area!

Conratulations on your decision to remove the invasive pest from your allee. As you can see their performance in the landscape is often not so great either. You'd be doing the right thing and especially not to patronize the industry any more for those norway maples. For every one norway maple you buy, they will produce 5 more. Makes me want to scream. Last year I planted a London Planetree 'Yarwood' that I bought from a local grower in a 2.5" size and approximately 24' tall for around $100. I've wanted a sycamore-like tree on my street since I saw the ones in Julie's tree diary (treegrowersdiary.com) I replaced a Zelkova that was planted by the builder and had lost all its branches in a variety of storms. This bark on the yarwood is very white and mottled. More so than native sycamore which I would have planted if I could have found one. This year it looks like it's grown another inch in caliper! Got stunned by the Easter Freeze unfortunately. London plane does have a different mature size and slightly different habit than native American Sycamore. It is more rounded and not quite so tall from what I've read. I'm pleased with it so far and can't wait til it drapes over the street. I think you will be happy with it too although I would suggest, as usual, a mixed planting. Maybe drop some LP's here and a little oak there and some elm over there. You see so there is some protection against a total wipeout.

We have just finished installing birch in our home, and love it! I find it has much more colour variation and knots than maple. We also have two lively dogs, and because it is a little more rustic looking, I am not as paranoid about scratches and the odd knick.

With all the oak kitchens being torn out right now, have you considered purchasing used cabinets the builder could repurpose? If they were structurally sound he might be ok with it. Another option is hickory if they offer it and you like it. I have seen that done recently but might be more "country" than you are looking for.' Its really hard to help when you haven't posted any information about what choices you have. The door style, house style and other things like flooring and countertop choice make a big difference, also. It sounds not like you really can't get a nice country kitchen but just that you can't get oak and you have decided that is all you really want. There really is no cure for that, unfortunately. However, if you change your mind and decide you really do want a nice country kitchen even if it is not in oak, post some photos of your choices and I am sure many will help you come up with an awesome kitchen that meets that criteria if it is anyway possible from the choices you have. Unfortunately it sounds like you are suffering from the fact that although there is nothing wrong with oak, it just isn't very popular right now, and the builder is going with a supplier that offers choices that will appeal to a wider range of people right now in order to sell more houses. I am a little surprised he will not order one more time from the old supplier to please you, though, esp if you purchased the house based on those choices. This definately IS a buyers market, not a sellers, and buyers can demand more than they could have at many times in the past when the opposite was true. Did you give him your cabinet choice before he changed suppliers? Are the old suppliers even still in business? Sue