Sanding sealer or enamel undercoater. Several coats of either, sanded a lot between coats. You want to fill all of the oak pores and level the surface. This is harder on previously-finished oak, because it's more difficult to get a filler to adhere when there's already a finish there. On new oak it's easier- you use a pore filler made for this purpose, and it sticks in the pores nicely. Grit- 180 or 220 should work. Casey

Yup! That's just about how I do it...but I do the sides of the cabinets before the last coat of the front goes on in case I have any slight drippage onto the fronts (gasp) and I can correct it immediately....as you know, there are no touch ups with impervo once it begins to dry. I used black bean soup for my bathroom and they look great (except for the one that husband literally drove over in the garage...thank god it was nearly dry! Oh, and I always use a foam roller. Always!

And what color are you painting the house? How can we offer you some suggestions if you can't tell us what color you're painting the body of the house.

Gorgeous door. I had painted wood banister and woodwork in my last house. It does show scuffs. And mine was the old oil based paint so much more durable than modern. This is how I feel about painting wood - if it has great grain and looks really good, then don't paint. I don't see either situation for your woodwork, but I also like wood and am really lazy so I would not paint. As far as bang for your buck, a new window is relatively inexpensive compared to all the years of joy it could bring you. As far as dark, your dark green carpeting is not doing you any favors. I had carpeting on my stairs at my last house and stuck with it because it makes the stairs seem less dangerous if I fell down them. But I would definitely go with an indoor/outdoor close weave kind of carpet, made for heavy traffic areas. Just do the treads if you need to save money. I love the idea of wall lights, sort of like what pot lights can do only appropriate for the style of your home. Gorgeous home details, BTW. Not sure how much your budget is and how much you want to tackle. I can't see how painting your woodwork will go with the style of your house and it doesn't seem like you want that much of a redo on everything else. Why do you have your entry way rug taped down? I could see adding a larger lighter rug there to tone down the dark of that groovy floor tile.