I have seen Amish furniture in Lancaster, PA and also their line of outdoor furniture at local trade shows. Both lines exhibit the care and quality of craftsmanship that one would expect from caring wood crafters. It appears via the Google link (last link below), that there are some furniture stores in Massachusetts that carry at least some Amish made furniture. Comparable hand made quality pieces (depending on what you want) I have found are made by D.R. Dimes in New Hampshire. Excellent reproductions. I'd want to see it before buying it. The Amish will also custom build and there is a store in Greenfield, MA that purportedly carries some pieces and will custom order for you. An email would verify. "http://www.andysoak.com/" "http://www.drdimes.com/" Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: Amish Furniture Stores, Massachusetts

I'm in a similar situation. Our furniture was all ruined by a water pipe flood while we were away. The house, which had to be gutted, is repaired (took a year), and the GC has been paid (took another year). Now we need to replace all the furniture. I looked into the companies suggested by sloyd. Thanks sloyd! Chilton has several pieces that are simply made, and, while not as stylish as the ones I love at Room and Board, are much more affordable. I'm also looking into Gat Creek, which I can buy through Hickory Furniture Mart. We like the look of solid, natural cherry pieces with clean lines. What are you looking for? I'll be very interested in any good sources that are suggested here. Please let me know how you are progressing. I have some idea what you have been through. Good hunting.

10% doesn't sound to you like a lot. However, that discount comes entirely out of his/her profits. So you are "only" saving 10% but its costing the store 30% of its profit, with out even considering overhead. Because furniture stores have incredibly high overhead, its safe for a store to deep discount here and there, but when it becomes habit then there isn't enough left to cover the expenses. Yes some stores mark up high in order to negotiate, but you generally find those stores in urban areas with many first- and second-generation immigrants from less developed countries where haggling is deeply ingrained in the culture and has taken root among the general population. The best way to know if you're getting a fair price is to do a little shopping and ask reasonable questions. Also, floor samples and slow moving merchandise will be deeply discounted to make room for new products that might sell better. So ask for those items as well.

my thoughts are two fold. First I worked for Bruce and we always had a 5/16th product. There was nothing wrong with the thickness and it was very durable. I can also tell you that it wasn't always so easy to install and we had our fair share of problems getting it right. I'm sure there are still installers who wrote off Bruce because of Natural Reflections. I'd therefore be more interested in the stores experience in dealing with the product. What I can tell you as a former rep with 25 yrs in the industry that if the dealer you like, is more of an independent they are not going to selling a product that their installers hate, or they have bad reactions to. If its a home depot type place, they are going to be selling whatever they have around, so if your using a dealer you like, like the product, and they feel its good for your needs, just make the decision. Basing a wood floor buying decision solely on thickness isn't a sound factor.