Lucy, If you want to plant the tree for show, too, you probably don't want to net it. Otherwise, some sour cherry trees are naturally small (no more than 15'). Birds may leave some cherries for you if you don't net. There are a number of persimmon that are hardy to zone 6. Check England nursery or JF & E nursery. I know Logee's. It's known for exotic tropical and subtropical plants. If you want fruit trees (I don't count fig as a tree), you'll be better off buying bareroot fruit trees from reputable fruit tree nurseries. Search this forum, there are many of them.

How far are you from Uxbridge MA, on the RI border? Many people here have had high praise for Country Craftsman. They are not a full design center but custom cabinet makers, and I think they also do counters. Many have found that their prices can beat Lowes and HD for better quality and full customization.

Where are you? The rep from Costco here in CT is out of the Boston area, Surface Technologies, which the same place Lowes uses for its quartz. Might be the same people for granite, also, but I am not positive. Granite colors are more limited than what you would get elsewhere but might be fine if they have what you are looking for. He said mostly darker granite colors, a fee lighter. The advantage with Costco is they hold the money and supposedly the fabricator does not get paid until you are satisfied. I assume there are some reasonable limits to that, but you have costco to help you get results if there is a problem. If you use them do NOT sign off on anything until you are SURE you are satisfied. Sue

@nanj, your Fusion is fantastic. @Sophie Wheeler, I DO like blues. One of the reasons I like this one so much is that my colors are always greens and blues, and I thought it would be a wonderful starting point to design my whole downstairs around. Maybe it doesn't show very well, but there are a lot of blues and greens in this one. The cabs I'm holding up are Showplace Hale Navy and either Heron Plume or Gun Smoke, I don't remember which. My plan has always been to pick the rock first and go from there. Anyway, to answer other questions, Mrs Pete, the kitchen is very important to me (and to the house) but I'm not trying to go nuts here. This is a new build lake home which we'll live in permanently in about five years and which we do not plan to leave until we are carried out drooling. That said, it's designed so we can live on only one floor of it, and we will have very nice bedroom suites in which theoretically a caregiver could live eventually. Also, to clarify - the fabricator is local, it's the slabs that are four hours away, but they're at a regular supplier to the fabricator. The prices above do include fabrication. I went to a warehouse in Brooklyn where I believe all the rocks land after they come off the boat, and they get disseminated from there. That guy said I could buy slabs from him and then pay only for fabrication, but I didn't even consider that. It seemed like it would be asking for trouble. Rita, I won't have marble and DH will not have soapstone. I like ss and had a box of samples from M Teix in NJ and I set about scratching and dinging them with a fork and my husband was horrified. He doesn't usually have opinions so when he has a strong one, I tend to listen. I've looked at hundreds of granites, quartzites, quartz products in Brooklyn, Albany, Ithaca, Syracuse, and in CT (I live downstate, the new house is upstate.) I may have to talk myself into liking one of them but I think I have a talent for unknowingly going for expensive ones. When we finished our basement several years ago, the contractor took me to a granite yard and I went right to one slab. He laughed and said, "You can't have that one; it's the most expensive one here." I picked another and he said, "And that's the second." This went on awhile, LOL. It would help a lot if slab prices were listed ON THE STONE. In Brooklyn I was looking at an amazing piece of labradorite (sp) and the guy said, "Trust me, you don't need that." Then he showed me blue eyes granite. Now that was actually useful. Unfortunately, I didn't like the granite. Thank you, everyone.