Plans de travailles

That's the French expression for countertops, which the British call "worktops," and this is important since the carpenter charged with replacing the one on the kitchen island, or ilot de cuisine, is British. So today I corresponded with Warren, the British expat carpenter, who informed me that my base cabinets are a tad too wide to accept a stock size butcher block worktop like the ones they sell at IKEA. He suggested ways he could buy two tops and split and rejoin them to create the size we need, but that didn't excite me. So I did some googling and finally found a French firm that makes custom butcher block worktops in whatever size you need. I have tasked Warren to look into this company and see what a top in our specific measurements would cost.

Here I thought this would be an easy project, but as soon as custom, or bespoke, sizes come into play, the economics of the situation grow exponentially. Zut! Quel domage.