OK, I need a group hug so bear with me:

I feel like we've spent a lot of time on this already and haven't
received very good results.

I've been laying out my solutions and have come to these conclusions:

1) Tomorrow I sand everything down and redo everything using the
hotdog roller and the BM with Penetrol. The thing is I can't roll
everything and will have to brush in certain areas and I worry about
the inconsistency.

2) Tomorrow I sand everything down and buy the darkest ebony stain I
can find and stain all the wood. Hopefully the wood will be dark
enough that all the ugly grain of the (birch?) wood will be hidden.
What's the feasibility of this?


..