Worktops

The guests were arriving in a few hours, the lasagne had been carefully constructed, the house was clean, but the kitchen looked a little worse for wear. Fortunately our worktops are made of 35mm beech, so it doesn't take more than an hour to take off the top surface and re-oil it with a rustic oil.

Normally I don't worry much about how they look - wood is a natural product and marks and dents are all fine by me so our worktops don't get the same love and attention as people lavish on their black stone equivalents. Incidentally, I'm told by people in the trade that much of the stone which is sold as worktops is pretty inferior product. Beech on the other hand is difficult to palm off in the same way because the colour and grain are obvious even to the uninitiated.

Rubbing down the worktops isn't something I would recommend to everyone on New Year's Eve, but we have all the kit so it is just a matter of getting it out of the garage. As my father-in-law would have said when he was alive "the better the day, the better the deed". This job has already earned me brownie points and maybe I should buy some more papers for the orbital sander, just in case I have to do it on another day when the shops are closed.

Have a good New Year's Party and don't make any resolutions for your business that you can't deliver.