DIY

 OK, so it took much longer than I expected - 3 hours of work and one hour of vacuuming and dusting the whole kitchen. The mess got EVERYWHERE. And I guess I could have bought a more powerful sander than my little palm sized one. It was pretty noisy work too - my next door was curious and wondered if I was mincing up my ex husband in the blender. "No, not unless he forgets the child maintenance cheque" I answered.  Ooh that reminds me of a good novel I read - "Out" by Natsuo Kirino.

Sanded and ready for wood stain.