We decided that part of our windfall would be spent on opening up our fireplace in time for this winter so we can start to take advantage of our new plumbing and have the pleasure of a real fire to keep us warm.

Our next-door-neighbour’s fireplace is the original and is beautiful – an arch of shaped bricks, over a cast-iron bar, with shaped brick pillars and a stone back. We believed ours was behind the horrid ‘rustic’ fireplace that had certainly replaced the old.

DM photographed what is next-door and we engaged the help of a friend who is better skilled than us at the sort of effort needed to get the old fireplace out.

Our friend has spent two days working like a dog to get the old fireplace out, bash off all the new plaster and unblock the opening. What he found behind the plaster was a crime against this building if ever I saw one. The beautiful, shaped bricks had been brutally hacked with a bolster to make them flat with the rest of the wall – the shaping had ‘stood proud’ of the plaster before. The person who did this act of sheer vandalism should be shot.....though I half-expect they're long gone from this Earth already so my anger can't be vented on them.

So, we now have our original opening, but instead of a lovely brick, Victorian fireplace, we have a right old mess basically. Our new plan is to plaster the front and sides, re-point the stone back and then put our new stove in as planned. We’re gutted but we do love the new opening.

In this shot, you can see the new opening, the arch, the dark patches above it are new pointing that’s not yet gone off. At the top of the wall to the left of the fireplace, you’ll see some ancient wallpaper, the exposing of which has given me a massive bruise on my arm. We’d not intended to take down the coving that was in front of the paper, until the room gets decorated but while removing pipework, it fell and hit me!

The dark blob above the clock is where we’ve cut the old pipe for now, though it will all go before the decorating gets done.

Rosie snoozes on the disgusting flowery (and now coated in brickdust) carpet and our ‘his’n’hers’ matching candle holders stand together in the new opening giving a nice warm glow!

It’s been a hard couple of days but at least the first stage of this part of the grand plan is done now and tomorrow we can fix up a chimney sweep, a plasterer and someone to install the new stove. Hurrah. Thanks to our friend.

Last year, we started a journey that, in retrospect, we should never have made.