I love the look of real wooden door too! There no better curb appeal than a wood door if your garage door faces the street. You'll always find people who will talk you out of owning a wood garage door. As long as you maintain the wood door properly, you'll have years of enjoyment. However, not all real wood garage doors are made the same. Some are poorly made...especially doors built with thin wood panels attached to a steel door. A new trend is faux wood garage doors. The composite faux material is molded from real wood to look like real wood. I saw these faux wood doors at the International Builders Show recently. They are gorgeous and they do really look like the real thing. Only a few companies manufacture these doors. Linda mentioned Fatezzi. Two other companies are Clopay (www.clopay.com) with their Canyon Ridge line and Ranch House Doors Elements Collection (www.faux-wood-garage-doors.com). Steel doors with wood grain patterns are also getting better. In the past, these doors do not look realistic. However, the steel wood grain doors still cannot match the look of real or faux wood garage doors. Real and faux doors are not cheap. If cost is a concern, check out faux painting as well. A good faux paint job can do wonders to an otherwise boring white steel garage door. Tip: DIY faux painting tutorial at http://www.bejane.com. Search for "How To Paint that Garage Door to Look Like Wood"

Just wanted to let everyone know that, amidst a monster renovation, we did go forward with cleaning all the woodwork to prepare for new shellac. After all the advice on solvents and strippers, we just stuck with plain denatured alcohol, steel wool (various grades) and brass brushes (various sizes). We went through A LOT of alcohol, gloves, wool, brushes and rags!! We worked much more aggressively on the oak (in an effort to lighten it a bit) and gentler on the fine grain wood(maple/birch/cherry? not sure what the exact species is). Will share pictures soon... now that we are finally ready to re-shellack (will be employing the help of a pro painter, but giving him specific guidance & oversight on handling shellac). I am now in the process of trying to source the freshest canned shellac (Zinnser) that I can. For the technical folks out there who know shellac - Zinnser advises using a 2lb cut blend on woodwork trim & doors; the can comes pre-mixed at 3lb cut. To step it down to the 2lb cut, the instruction is to blend 2 parts alcohol with 5 parts shellac. Wondering if others have followed this guidance, or just applied straight out of the can? After this epic prep, the last thing I want to do is screw up the finish... I'll have the painter thin it out as directed, although I was hoping to make this process as straightforward as possible for him to avoid mistakes. The other thing I need to grapple with is the possiblity of tinting the shellac that we'll use in the dining room, which was a tinted shellac to begin with (in a brown cherry tone). We'll test how the clear shellac will work on it, but I think we'll have to use a tinted shellac to even out the variations in the wood's tone after the cleaning process. Also as we widened a doorway in that room and had to have a new header replicated out of white oak, so I think a tinted shellac would help with blending (I've already rubbed the new wood down with "dirty" alcohol during the cleaning to begin to match it). I was thinking of experiementing with a universal colorant (we don't want to use amber/orange in there). The plan is to hit the rest of the house (which has an orange glow) with clear shellac. Again, if anyone has technical advice in this area, it'd be great to hear! Here is a link that might be useful: Shellac Application Data

To number the doors you can incise small marks on the lower edge of the inside of the door. Often there is a small area that would be hidden unless you were lying on the floor looking up. For doors of upper cabs, look for a similar surface on the top edge of the doors. You can make the marks with a small wood chisel. You just mark them in some sensible and consistent order and they'll go back correctly. Small differences in hinge placement may make random re-attachment a pain so it really is better to know which door is which. I often use simplified roman numerals or just slash, slash, diagonal, etc., like you would if you were doing it with a pencil. In my 195 year old barn if you slant a flashlight just right you can easily see the handmade slash marks and roman numerals made by the timber framers to make sure all the pieces of each complicated roof and collar beam mortice would fit together perfectly once they hoisted. The barn was entirely assembled using only timber pegs (aka tree "nails") from massive oak timbers felled from my woodlot. I really enjoy looking at the carpenter's marks and figuratively seeing their hands at work. And after nearly 200 years the framing is still tight, level and plumb without a smidge of metal to hold it together. I wonder if modern glue-lams and stamped plate-truss attachment brackets will fare as well over time. Hope your project is going well. Molly~

Thank you! You have given me a lot to think about (that is why I posted!). Re-reading my OP, it is obvious I am not a very good communicator. If we sell this house, it will not be for 10-15 years. My resale fear comes from the fact that this house sat vacant for upwards of 4 years and the realtor said it was because everyone hated the kitchen and did not want to buy a house for the price the seller was asking and have to go in and do an immediate kitchen remodel. I have a set of plans from a local renowned KD commissioned by another potential buyer. I did not like them because it got rid of the island. Although our kitchen is not big enough by NKBA standards to have an island I really love its functionality. I just do not like the way this one looks. We tried to cosmetically update it by painting it black, adding corbels, and putting on a cherry butcherblock top and it was a huge FAIL. It looks too stripey. So that is why I am trying to find something "timeless" and that will appeal to the masses. I know that eventually we will sell but it will not be anytime soon. This kitchen overhaul will not be an investment. It is for my pleasure alone. I am actually the one who convinced my husband that the kitchen was purely functional three years ago and there was no reason to rush into a remodel. Simply stripping the 90s wallpaper and replacing the plastic wire cabinet pulls and lighting made a world of difference. The most unappealing and dated effects are the awful gray laminate countertops with PVC edging and the soffit above the island that we affectionately call the "Tumor." At one point, we WERE planning to just paint the cabinets the same color as the living room walls (looks a little different when it is semi-gloss) and replace the countertops with granite, but after perusing the beautiful kitchens on this website we decided to go big or go home! Then we decided we really, really wanted an open burner gas range. I still do, but think I could compromise with a 30 inch model as I really only need 6 burners over the holidays. That area below the current cooktop is nothing but wasted space because of the Jennair downdraft (all the rage in the 90s!). I could also fit a 30 in under cabinet range hood. I do not like that look and that is not an ideal size, but again I guess this is about compromise. I could probably even get along with a 30 inch rangetop, but would really like to have the extra oven. Again, only necessary on holidays. I will think about that one and compare prices. Thank you for reigning us in! I had planned to pay cash for the high end appliances and charge the cabs because the appliances would deplete our reserves. You can always get 18 months same as cash at Lowes, so as long as the cabs were under $18K that would be manageable (perhaps I am being naive though since I never actually priced the cabs, but it is not a large kitchen.). Greendesigns: My brother is the most skilled HVAC person in the U.S. and since his wife does not cook, his labor charges are usually only a home cooked meal or two. Just outside this window is my husbands grill porch (we pass food through the window). Gas is piped there, so I do not think it would be too difficult for DB to run it around the corner to where the gas range would be. I am checking with him, though. The ventilation would be no problem for him and make up air can come from cracking the nearby window. Again, maybe I am being naive! Ginny20: Thank you for the info on the butcher block. That is exactly what I was looking for. I went to BN and they already had the Aug This Old House mags out, but I will see if I can order a back-issue of the July mag online. So! Is this a better plan: - Replace cabinet doors only. Should I put glass in any of them? If so, which ones? The local cabinetmaker who installed the current cabinets is still in business so I have sent them an email asking if they can do doors only. That is a great idea and I wish I had thought of it!! They also have a beautiful style of door called Painted Classic that I love. My concern with replacement doors is this silly curved door. Hopefully they will agree to build a replacement since they installed the original. Also there is a lot of cracking. Not sure if it is the paint or the actual wood. I can live with it. Some pay extra for distressing! - Replace 30 in downdraft cooktop with 30 in range or rangetop. Add under the cabinet hood. - Replace sink with ss undermount and ss pulldown faucet. - Replace countertops with antique brown granite. - I will replace the fridge/wall oven/mw only as they fail (we have just had to do this with the workhorse ka dw as parts were no longer available) and not upsize. - Add BS (already have a great tile guy) and paint kitchen Tweed (already have an awesome painter). - Remove tumor. DH can build something less belligerent to mask the area. I can swing this with cash dependent on the price of the cabinet doors. Thank you for your concern and, of course, you are right! In the future, will remove soffits and add crown to cabs. I have already confirmed with the builder/previous owner that there is nothing behind them. Also want to replace the desk area with drawers so it looks more like a hutch. That desk is unused except for a messy drop zone. Thank you again! Michele