Interesting topic. I have had a single lady do entire house by herself. She left b/c it made more $en$e for her to work in a team and I was also growing tired of having her for several hours in my house. The parting was on good terms. Have had teams and the upside is there here and gone in no time, but when teams change b/c somebody gets fired, sick, etc., I always notice things out of place or cleaned unlike I specified. New people in teams = retraining and I really don't like having to be on constant watch to ensure consistency. But overall, I think a team is best, as mine has insurance if something is broken or damaged. Nobody does my laundry, makes my bed or cleans fridge or oven. I hired them to dust all, vacuum, polish furniture, clean windows, fans, cabinets and doors every 15 da. Will give them a little extra if I have visitors, in which case they do make that bed, and whatever extra is caused by the visit. Used Home Advisors to get my latest cleaning service. On an unrelated subject, I once recommended my cleaning service to a neighbor that turned out to be a sleaze ball and they didn't pay the lady for 3 months. I was mortified that I hooked her up with the slimeballs, so I doubt I will recommend anybody to avoid this kinda stuff.

Thanks Joann. DH will be at work but I have my adult, male doberman, Ronin, here with me. He very good protection, but this is very good advice for anyone having a repair person come into their home when they might be there alone . . . or with young children. I've just scheduled our semi-annual window cleaning, inside & out, too, I always schedule it on a Saturday when DH can be home with me to keep an eye on things. Thank you so much for taking the time to give us all that very good advice! Lynn

My Plain & Fancy cabinets are 10 now. Factory spray painted. This Old House did a show on P&F focusing on the painted surface which seems to be especially durable. On the show they were installing white cabinets. Mine are a butter color. The only areas of wear is on the edge and knob of the garbage pull out and on the handle of the dishwasher -- I had purchased a handle from Lee Valley and sent it to them for spray painting. This is wear and it's the type people pay to get on painted furniture. No chipping whatsoever and no separation in the seams either. We are in upstate NY so we have similar temperature extremes as New England. No idea if P&F has changed their manufacturing in the last few years. There was a poster on here with a huge rant on them but I've been very happy with the quality. Kompy, who's a KD, did a gorgeous white kitchen a year or so ago with P&F. You might consult her as well if they interest you.

It does come in different colors, but in my experience if you are working on wood that has already been refinished (like my cabinets were) it is hard to get them even unless you go pretty dark. (I have done seven gel stain projects.) I used general finishes Brown Mahogony, but have seen a lot of beautiful transformations on this site with Java from General finishes. I wouldn't say its hard, its just time consuming and you need to have an area that is not dusty where you can work on it and where they can dry. If you have a lot of nooks and crannies on your wood you have to take special care to get it even so you can see the fabric mark. And you have to realize that it will look pretty ugly before it looks pretty nice lol I have also used minwax on a bathroom vanity and I would probably suggest you steer clear of that product, it is not as good as general finishes. Here is a link that might be useful: Gel stain freakout