We're trying to sell our house without spending way too much money. We have good quality kitchen cabinets built in the early '60's (looks like cherry-not sure if it actually is). In the process of trying to degrease some particularly bad areas, my husband actually "scrubbed" off the finish (poly?) and wood color. There were about 4 or 5 of these stripped areas, noticeably large. Now, we didn't want to restrip the entire set of cabinets. So I bought some Minwax stain and restained the areas. It wasn't a great match but it looked better. Last night we went over all the cabinets with one coat of polyurethane. Now it looks terrible. The stained areas which were already too dark, look even darker. The problem is that I was using stain like paint, applying it thick, because it wasn't soaking in and then letting it sit there instead of wiping it off. I know now that was totally wrong but now what do I do. There's already a coat of poly on it.

i am looking to do my first mud job on a shower floor, i have done other tile jobs but just do not know where to start on this mud job. i have the cooper pan but can find no info on doing the mud job at all ,can anyone help with some info?