Did you have an accident or are do you have vested interest in getting off a cripple?

Get it right. "Engaging in a mutually consensual physical relationship with a non-temporarily-able-bodied person".
Sheesh. Back to sensitivity training for you!

Sounds like a good plan.

Here's mine:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/7/9360124_5b888f9eab.jpg

Dual Shaker Table , $3485, sieves extra.

Sounds like an expensive way to get it. I would keep looking.

[slight] When I was shopping for a hope chest and couldn't find any (at any price) that I liked at the local furniture stores, my mom and I went to a localish Amish man's woodshop and had one made exactly how I wanted it. It turned out beautifully, was about the midpoint pricewise of the ones that I had seen at the stores, and should be a great piece to pass on to my daughter someday. I'll try to take a pic this weekend. [/drift]

HM, that's beautiful! Exactly what I'm looking for.

I agree with LR. Cost is not the major driving factor; I'd rather get the right pieces of furniture. Hopefully ones that can be refinished (if necessary). I'd like to plan on using it for the next 30 years, at least. (My last set of crappy Ikea desks lasted for a decade, so it's not unreasonable. Our kitchen table is a teak veneer job that is also 30+ years old.)

If you are looking at refinishing down the road in a decade or two, oak might not be the best choice, depending on if you want to change the color. Oak has large open pores and finish really gets into those pores and won't come out easily in the future. Even with a chemical stripper and nylon brush, getting the finish out of oak pores is a difficult job. Although you can use this attribute for a two toned look where the pores are a different color than the rest of the surface. Or just keep the same color and don't worry about it.

The Cellar is such a wealth of information! So glatt, what wood would you recommend?

I'd actually ask the place you deal with. Tell them what you want in the table. And what color you want it to eventually be. They might have a glut of one species that would end up being cheaper than another.

Maple is nice, cherry is too, but expensive. I'm partial to walnut, but it's a taste thing and has similar open pores. Oak is good too, but you might want to consider filling the pores before finishing it. There are several ways to do this. You can use a filler like this. Or start off with a thick layer of shellac, or just build up multiple layers of varnish or poly, sanding between each application.

I tend to think of historical Shaker furniture as being made of maple, but I'm not sure if that's actually true.

I had to chuckle at this. I don't do woodworking, but I do bbq regularly. So when the talk turns to wood, my mind wanders away from woodworking and I start thinking about what I'd cook with it.

But you're correct in either situation. Choice of wood is a matter of taste. :D

...especially if you're a termite! ;)

My husband is partial to cherry, but I prefer oak... We'll ask the woodworkers what the have and what the prices are!

No, nay, nix, do not fill the pores. That's what makes oak, um oak. It's what gives it character, without grain it might as well be Formica.
That would be like painting curly maple white, spackling a pressed tin ceiling, or doing a Leopard with Miss Clairol.
You can do from a light (natural) finish all the way to a deep mahogany red, and it will still be oak and beautiful.

One can use a contrasting color to fill oak pores which is what I usually do since I like the look of old oak where the pores have become blackened. I use the pore filler tinted black. For a writing surface, it helps if the desk doesn't have such open pores, especially if you are not a religious blotter user and write directly on the surface of the desk.

Why not see if HM will take a commission, he does very nice work from what I've seen on the cellar.

So if you work with normal wood in the normal way, do you have to work with parawood paranormally?