For my DIY kitchen remodel, I built about half the cabinets new, but I refaced the rest. I replaced every door and drawer front with new ones. Also, I replaced the exposed hinges with Euro-style hidden ones. Like yours, my old cabinets were oak.

However, "refaced" means covering every existing outside surface with wood, either 1/4 inch plywood, or wood veneer. It does not mean sanding down existing wood cabinets and restaining.

There are a few challenges with your approach. First of all, when cabinets are stained, the stain soaks in. To remove the stain and get down to clean wood, you have to sand down the clear finish coat, and enough thickness of the wood to get past the old staining. The fronts of the cabinets, called the face frames, are usually made out of solid wood, and there is enough thickness, 3/4 inches, that you can sand off enough to get to clear wood. However, don't underestimate the effort to do this, which is considerable. Also, you have to not only sand down to clear wood, but fine sand to get to a finish-ready smooth finish.

However, the sides of the cabinets are usually plywood, and the part you see is a thin veneer of wood. If you sand this down, you have a good chance of sanding through the outer veneer, and right down to the next layer of wood, which will be oriented in a different direction. Also, this next layer will not be a "facing" veneer - it will likely be a different wood than the outer veneer.

As to your idea of covering the hinge holes with larger doors, this is problematic too. Hidden hinges only work with a certain amount of overlap between the doors and the opening. This is called the overlay. Most hidden hinges are designed for a 1/2 inch overlay. You can buy hinges that will allow a larger overlay, up to 1 1/2 inch:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2283&filter=blum%20hinge

Just make sure ahead of time that you plan appropriately for the right hinges and doors - both are expensive.

Another consideration...what condition are your cabinets in? How is your kitchen layout to work in?

If your cabinets are in great condition (solid, no issues with shelves, overall condition, drawers & glides, etc.), then it might be worth the effort. Have you done this before? Read Vate's response...it's a lot of work. Even gel staining will take a lot of work (see the "Read Me" thread").

OTOH, if your cabinets are in rough shape, I don't think the effort is worth it...but, YMMV. Ditto for refacing. Ditto if you have a poorly laid out kitchen.

Instead, I would consider one of two things...waiting until you have enough $$$ saved to replace the cabinets...or...look into Ikea cabinets - they'll probably be less than the cost of refacing. There are many happy Ikea owners here and Consumer Reports rated them highly.

If your cabinets are in bad shape, I would also not replace the countertop with an expensive material like granite, quartz, solid surface, or even high-end laminates. (You didn't say if you planned to replace your counters, but I thought I'd mention it!)

Here is a link that might be useful: Read Me If You're New To GW Kitchens!

Replacement is ideally what I would like to do but its not really practical for several reasons. I was somewhat content with my cabinets until after I did somewhat of a kitchen overhaul. I replaced cabinet hardware, new laminate counters, tumbled marble subway backsplash, ceramic floors, and new lighting. All of my changes really made my kitchen look much more modern with the exceptions of the cabinets and the new increased lighting really brought out the flaws that were fairly unnoticed before. I'm planning on moving out of state probably within the next 2 years and I'd rather put in the hours of labor rather than the money.

I removed 2 cabinets in my basement that are identical to my kitchen cabinets and I'm going to use them for testing. I'm going lightly sand and gel stain one and the other I'm going to primer and gel stain. They are a fairly dark golden brown color so I dont know how well they will cover unless I use something like java.