My kitchen

Just recently we found a craftsman who "stains" cabinets and we decided to have it done to ours. My husband hates the look of painted cabinets and this was our compromise. We had priced refacing and when we heard a $12,000 quote, we decided that wasn't the way to go.

I was thoroughly intending to take a before picture, but our craftsman came while I was out shopping(?) and took all the cabinet faces with him so he could do them at home. I searched back through my pictures and this is the best I could find of a before shot. My cabinets are a pretty good quality of oak, but I was tired of the finish and especially tired of the very nasty looking baseboards and spots on the cabinet where the finish was worn away.



Before our craftsman's arrival Wednesday, I cleaned out every cupboard. The craftsman and his helper came early that day and masked off the entire kitchen... walls, lights, ceiling, refrigerator, floor and then starting spraying a stain over our existing finish. It took the entire day of coat after coat of stain and top coats of polyurethane(?) and then it was done. I was to leave it alone for 24 hours and then I could put everything back.

Here is the finished product...







I love it!

The unexpected thing that happened was not the finishing of the cabinets. It happened afterward. We got a call late Thursday (just about 24 hours later) from our DIL. There was an emergency in her family. I had just one day to get my house put back together, my laundry done, my bags packed, my visiting teaching done, and my substitutes arranged for my church callings before I flew out for an indefinite amount of time to help my son's family. With the help of my sister, willing people, and some aid from God, I was able to get it all done and arrived at the airport at 5 am on Saturday for my next adventure.