I'll take some photos of the chairs later.
As for a planer, i would love one, but I cant justify the cost yet, especially when I have access (and a fully supplied shop) to one within a 30 minute drive. If I could find a planer that does both direction I would pick it up, that would be worth its weight in gold.
I did some oak countertops a few years back, and was very successful in building a sliding jig for my router and used that to level the whole thing off, in fact I built the whole counter top as one solid piece by gluing together a ton of 2" strips together then using the sliding router, pretty much what this guy does. It took me all day to shave 1/16" off the top, but again I can't afford (nor would I ever need a $5k machine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqhQutXvyDM