We moved into our house about 2 months ago, it was a 2 year nightmare
renovation. We went all out in pretty much every room, but especially
the kitchen. Last week I was talking to our custom cabinet guy who had
come to adjust a sliding door and he mentioned on the way out to keep
water off the cabinets because it takes the finish off. At the time I
thought it was odd, but didn't say anything to him. Then the next day
I noticed that indeed the finish was gone in streaks (about 1/4" in
places) at the bottom of the doors to the cabinets that were near the
two sinks (one is a a prep sink). When I talked to him today he said
that there is no finish that is water resistant and that this is bound
to happen if we don't keep an eye on it. The problem of course is that
you can never keep the water totally off the cabinets, not to mention
that these are vertical surfaces, I guess you could make the argument
that standing water on the top of a counter is eventually going to
leave a stain or remove the finish. What I'm seeing is that water
drips down the face of the cabinet then pearls when it gets to the
bottom edge where it hangs. I want to know if what he is telling me
and what I am seeing should be expected? Remember we've only been in
this house for about 2 months and you can already see the finish
starting to go and what really frightens me is that we've got the same
cabinets with the same finish in all of the bathrooms where there is
even more water around.

Thanks.