The best laid plans of mice and men and French country village house restorers gang aft astray. They do.

When I bought this heavily carved buffet de cuisine it was always intended to be the dramatic focal point of the kitchen diner. I thought we had done enough planning and measuring to accommodate it in the centre of that room but no.

First of all we wipe it down (it has been in the cave for nine years). Then we take it apart into three sections (cue Trev tearing his hair out) then we fetch the base upstairs.

And I find woodworm holes….

There is no other woodworm activity evident in the cave, probably because we spray every scrap of new or old wood that comes into the house. So are they historic? It looks like it, but why did I not notice this when I bought it?

Then we…