Thanks! I can tell it is not walnut. I have a lot of walnut, so I am familiar with the grain pattern. I was hoping the surface closeup would show the grain pattern better, but it is so dark. Once I get the rim gunk off I should be able to tell if the top is veneered. Right now it does not look like it. The grain is quite wide apart. I was thinking the same thing about Restore-a-finish. I have only tried the Formby's product, but was guessing they might work in a similar way. Chibimimi, I have never heard of sweetgum! That is interesting. I have an old pie safe that had a dark obscuring stain. I tried stripping it, but the stain was soaked in so thoroughly it stayed dark. I wonder if that was sweetgum too. A long time ago I used Watco stripper and some product that had a hardening resin in with the oil. I really liked it. It gave a wonderful finish. Maybe that was the Rejuvenating Oil. I will have to keep my eyes open.

Thank you all for your great feedback! It's such a hard decision to make! (one of many) I do like honey maple and in some pictures it looks really great and not at all splotchy. In other pictures it looks uneven. I'm not sure what the difference is -- whether it's just the photos, the lighting, the quality of the finish ...? I'm also not sure whether a darker finish on maple makes the potential for splotchiness better or worse. (I know that unstained maple doesn't seem to have this problem and looks great, so that might be an option too). I wish we could have a skylight! Unfortunately there is a 2nd story above the kitchen :( Thanks for the idea though. othertime, your kitchen looks beautiful! Aren't those mahogany floors amazing! I like your choice of granite too -- what kind is it? I had a little look at your album -- what a great idea to use the same granite on the fireplace BTW ... we might consider doing that too. Your kitchen is much bigger than ours though, so I'm worried that going with cabinets that dark may make our little kitchen look like a cave. Or maybe not ... it's still definitely worth considering ...

Kay and Country Sunshine, for about $700 and many years of training, you too can use Photoshop to remove facial hair and wrinkles (none of which I had to do for Kat by the way). :-) Joann, I made a version of just Kat in case she wants to add it to the KT album or Facebook. Jodi-

None of these scare stories have happened to me. I’ve had mine for almost 2 years. I leave it set on medium hot. If you need to adjust the temp, you can always at least clean your hands first, then move the lever to change temp. I pretty much only need to change it if I want cold water for coffee pot, etc, in which case my hands aren’t dirty! Ours has never turned itself on. I can’t understand why so many people who have never tried one are so negative. If you cook, you get dirty hands and it’s a great feature. It is very simple to use manually if you prefer. It turns itself off automatically after a few minutes, so no risk of it overflowing or something.