Thanks, Angela, we do love it ... and when we were buying it we thought that he was asking a little too much, but he wouldn't budge on the price. We justified the price by considering its 'uniqueness, and calculating how much we'd save by me doing all the work ... Not sure of the logic, though
Thanks for the advice both ... I was maybe a little clumsy in my choice of words ... I really was thinking of a few light 'taps' rather than a full run up with a lump hammer ..
but I do know what you mean.
Had we had more time before the winter set in, it would have been ideal to do all the other jobs before fitting it ... but once the fire place had been taken out ....