Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Wood refinishing

O.k. I know that this will probably sound really stupid but I don't know much about refinishing wood.......as a matter of fact I don't know much about wood in general :) So here goes.........

We are thinking about buying my husband's grandmothers house and it has a very dark wood trim.......it almost looks like a REALLY dark brown almost black. Do you think this has been stained that dark and that it could be refinished? It doesn't really look like a cherry wood because it doesn't have much of a red tint to it. Most of our furniture now is oak and we are wondering if we would be able to refinish this wood or if we would have to just buy all new wood trim for the house..........

I know I am not much help describing the wood but I just thought I would see what anyone thought. I also thought about looking into that lightening finish stuff too.......has anyone heard anything about that either?

Thanks a million
KristaKay

Krista:

First thing I would do is try to find out what wood I have. Older houses sometimes used what is now quite expensive wood for trim, including oak, cherry, maple, walnut and mahogany.

Take some denatured alcohol and 00 steel wool and try scrubbing down a section of trim that's easy to reach - just a foot or so and see what you come up with. I'm thinking a house that old may have been stained and finished in shellac, which will come off without a regular stripper.

Try it, see what happens, and get back to me.