Having originally thought we could keep the existing open fireplace, Chris eventually realised it was too rusted to save, and found a replacement.

We started by chipping out the old fire, which went surprisingly easily.

Next we needed to sweep the chimney, but this was easier said than done. The chimney was unfortunately not entirely straight, with a kink part way up. Try as we might the chimney brush didn’t want to get past this bend. Eventually we decided to thread the poles up without the brush. Chris then climbed up to the roof and attached the brush. We were then able to pull it down. We repeated this a couple of times.

Coming back down from the roof Chris bumped into our neighbours, Joe and Suzie, themselves in the midst of a renovation. Talking through what we needed to do next – installing the new flexible metal flue – Joe was quick to volunteer a hand, having been through the pain of flue installation in his own house.

With that Chris and Joe set to work, with Suzie acting as a runner for tools and supplies. It turned out the reason we couldn’t get the brush up the chimney was due to a huge bundle of sticks, left behind by jackdaw nests. After a struggle to get this out, which included Chris getting into the chimney like a Victorian child, the chimney was finally ready for the flue.

The dogs (Idris and Chris’s aunt’s dog Kiwi – a lodger for the weekend) were surprisingly unbothered by the dust and noise, and merrily spread sooty footprints around the house.

With so many helping hands I felt at a bit of a loose end. I have to admit, at eight months pregnant, I had been finding crouching in front of the fireplace fairly exhausting. Additionally, the ensuing battle with the flue that Chris and Joe had would definitely have been beyond my physical strength, so we were very glad of the help. With nothing to do, I did some tidying of our cleaning cupboard, a new set of sorting boxes having recently arrived, made cups of tea, and popped to screwfix for a few additional pieces.

While I ‘kept busy’, Joe and Chris spent their time going up and down the roof, huffing and puffing, while they tried to thread the flue past the awkward kink in the chimney. Between them, finally the flue was in place, after some three hours of hardwork.

The next day, our helpers gone, it was back to me and Chris to move the fireplace forward. Though the flue was in place, we needed to move it up to get the solid metal flue attached and in place, to connect to the stove.

Chris climbed back onto the roof to try and pull the flue back up, while I tried to maneuver and push from the bottom. A couple of hours later the flue had moved about a foot, nowhere near enough. Both of us pretty tired, I suggested we needed to try something different.

My first suggestion was to break into the chimney where the bend was, to help force the flue past the bend (as suggested by the Internet if the flue gets stuck). Chris really didn’t fancy this idea, both for the extra mess and the work.

Second idea was to cut the flue shorter from the bottom, to give space to attach the solid metal flue. Chris pointed out he wouldn’t be able to reach high enough in the chimney to attach the flue. ‘If only I’d bought the shorter flue’ he said – I asked why we couldn’t just cut down the one we had. Finally, something made sense. Chris cut down the solid metal flue, and cut back the flexible flue inside the chimney, having just enough reach within the chimney to attach it all together, and bring the stove in to the space below. After hours of struggle, suddenly everything came together very quickly. Sometimes cheating is just the best way. Finally, Chris returned to the roof to cut back the flue at the top and attach the chimney cowl.

The hardwork was done, all that remains is to fill in around the stove and replaster.

Once the new plan had taken hold, Chris really didn’t need me (apart from listening out for him falling off the roof), so I set to work sanding beneath the bathroom radiator. We couldn’t reach under the radiator with the electric sander, so we’d planned to remove the radiator at some point in order to finish the job. However, Chris had realised with the bedroom floor that hand sanding was a viable option.

I’d been hoping to leave this job to Chris as crouching isn’t the most comfortable at the moment, but all the other jobs on my to do list involved painting, which didn’t seem a great idea with a house covered in soot. The finished job might not be quite as good as removing the radiator to sand, but it was a lot less hassle.

With Chris all done, all that remained was a deep clean of the house, though I’m sure we’ll be wiping away soot for months to come.