No, I Haven't Been Abducted by Aliens

Although that might be more interesting than real life.

This is where I have been spending my time.

Stripping

And refinishing

The cabinets and drawers were fairly easy, but these doors are a royal pain. So many little grooves, especially on the doors with four raised panels in each. We thought of taking the door to a dip strip place, but I tried some of that type stripper on a couple of drawers and it stripped off more of the stain than the CitriStrip I've been using. And since the cabinets are already done, the stripped pieces really need to match. So I've been using the CitriStrip on the doors too.

If you ever think you'd like to strip your entire kitchen, Don't Do It!. Do gel stain or paint, anything but stripping raised panel doors. I think I've spent two weeks doing just eight doors, one of them twice when the finish coat took off the stain and I had to start over. It would have been so much easier to paint, not to mention cheaper. But Hubby is a purist when it comes to which kinds of wood that should be stained and which should be painted, and ash should be stained. I think it's written in stone in the woodworking hall of fame or something.

The stripper made the wood take the stain darker in some places, especially the corners, and nothing I do makes any difference. It gives it an aged look, and I've decided it looks like it belongs in my thirty year old kitchen, so from now on I'm saying I planned it that way.

Meanwhile, we have the refrigerator and freezer cabinet built; just need to get it stained and finished too.

If my warning above wasn't enough to keep you from stripping those cabinet doors, maybe this will:

Yes, I keep forgetting to put on my rubber gloves when I start staining. A little dip stripper will take it right off though, along with letting me know of every cut, scratch, or dry skin crack on my hands. I only forgot to wear gloves on both hands once when doing the dip strip.

But the big news of the day is yet to come. I was going to make this a double post, but I'm just too tired. It can wait until tomorrow I guess.