Here's an article you might find interesting. It tells you about how waterfall came into popularity, how it was made, what not to use to clean it. Some interesting stories about it. (Such as why so many pieces made and that we still see today are bedroom suites. Depression era couples often started out living with parents, so had nothing much to call their own except their bedroom furniture - if they could afford that.) Click on What is Waterfall, Anyway? I'd be very leery of Krud Kutter on wood, but especially delicate, aged veneers. That's a degreaser meant for everything from aluminum siding to garage floors. There are lots of recipes out there for cleaning antique wood. I have a routine I like. Start with Formby's Deep Cleansing Build-Up Remover. Just be careful with any loose veneer, some of it could be about paper thin and not take a lot of pressure. I like Restore-A-Finish for pieces that need spruced up but not a full strip and restore. It's worked wonders on solid wood. If using on veneers, avoid the steel wool it says you can use. Too harsh on veneer imho. When you've got it nice and clean, consider a good paste wax like Trewax or I like the liquid Howard's Beeswax Feed N Wax (Sears Hardware, Ace). If someone in a store suggests Bowling Alley wax, I'd suggest avoiding it. It was recommended to me by a retailer who said a couple of his 'old-timer' antique dealing customers use it. That stuff was about impossible to buff out and was kind of gummy feeling to me. My SIL gave me a beautiful deco era waterfall accent table, from DHs grandparents. She just didn't want it anymore. I just did a light RAF wipe rather than a lot of elbow grease with super fine steel wool. Didn't want to risk harming the veneers. Anyway, I did my Formby's, RAF, Howard's Beeswax routine and sent her a photo with a thank you. She was amazed at the difference and wanted to know what I refinished it with. ;) This is a different piece, before and after. An ebay purchase, a vintage solid cherry hutch in pristine condition structurally but had smoke film on it and other kinds of grime, the finish was dull and needed a really good cleaning. seller's photo after I did my Formby's>RAF>Feed n Wax routine.

Thank you all for the advice and tips. I hear you about getting the insurance company to flip the bill on the kitchen. My goal would be to keep it as it took 2 months to build it. The entire kitchen is built out of rift cut white oak. The issue is that we didn't use a polyurethane on the cabinets due to the off gassing of high VOCs, instead we use a product called Osomo Wax / Oil which gets absorbed into the wood and doesn't seal anything in it allows the wood to breathe. It's an all natural product and safe... Well so much for trying to build a formaldehyde freeI home. The other thing that makes me sick is that we spent extra money to ensure our home didn't contain formaldehyde building products. All that just went out the door! Contacted Osmo and they said to try an Ozone generator. Our builder is working with the insurance company and they are definitely going after the electrician. The other issue in the kitchen is that water ran through the channels of the unsealed and ungrouted stone floors in the kitchen and water started seeping up on the sheetrock about 2 inches behind the cabinets. That's not a good sign! As much as in hate to go through this pulling out the kitchen maybe the safest thing to do. But would hate to take a chance and then it smells like smoke or have mold after we dicided to keep the kitchen. Hopefully we will know more after they do their cleaning I hope. not much has been done yet since it the holiday... So they shuold be full force on Monday with the cleaning. The hardwoods are now starting to cup all on the first floor and up on the second floor they are all covered with a light brown greasy soot. So we have about 4,400 SF of floors rift cut white oak floors and stone that has to be ripped out!!! Crazy... its just so hard to believe how much damage smoke can do. It sure does make you think about putting in a sprinkler system in the house! I'll keep you posted on how the builders risk insurance plays out..good to know that if there is extra funds that we might be able to use it for further upgrades. Thanks again for the tips...trying to keep our mind off it and work on the landscaping! Lot to do there.

Vinegar is a very poor choice for cleaning wood. 1 - Wash ALL surfaces with warm water and a mild soap. Don't forget the underside. Use a toothbrush on the cracks. 2 - Rinse with water and let it dry 3 - Wash all surfaces with mineral spirits and 0000 steel wool or a green scrub pad. Wipe it dry. You should be odor free, grunge free, and ready to paint.

jenn,,,it takes days, sometimes weeks, for the smell to dissipate. Give it a chance. it's not mold. it's musty. if you want to cover it, then use the oil base primer from Zinsser w/the smell/odor coverage. otherwise, do what I've advised. (I know you haven't let it sit in the sun enough, if at all) . here is the one I redid. I cleaned the door just fine exactly how I told u. this is how I got it. and yes, it had the musty smell. because of the discoloration of the door, I took the time to sand each groove by hand. The person who wanted this asked for the aqua color, so that's what I did. Inside wasn't the best of shape so i covered the bottom w/material over a thin piece of luann.