Thanks, Lee --

The client is widowed. Her husband had the place renovated (it used to be stucco all around), and he passed away only a year or two after completion. The client's primary beef is that the finish has failed badly in some places (not seen in the photo) and has faded on the doors.

Frankly, I think the original finish was terrible. Corners were certainly cut. Imagine covering up all that beautiful mahogany with what amounts to brown paint that can't be removed. (As a side note, I preempted a similarly bad finish on the interior floors; the client went with my Bysaki and wax finish instead, and it's bitchin'.)

I think the client, both him AND her, were screwed over in many ways, but....

We still have an issue with the doors == I can't get the existing finish off without a huge amount of labor. I could perhaps take the doors down to plane and sand, but the doors were "distressed" with a grinder, making huge divots in the wood. I wouldn't relish that project at all.

I'd like to ask for opinions about changing out the doors: Do you not think that we could find a wood that would be beautiful, but also sort of 'match' the beams? Perhaps walnut, although I'm not sure that walnut wouldn't fade over time, even with UV inhibitors in the topcoats. White oak fumed? I would tend to agree that going with natural mahogany might not look good against the beams, although... maybe it would?

I guess I'm asking how bad you all think it would be if the doors were done differently from the beams.

Oh, and about those beams: There's NO WAY I'm getting up there to treat those, and I seriously doubt I'll find any other takers.

Thanks for looking,
Rob