Another oh shit moment...

A few weeks ago I had a Rayburn service booked and a sweep booked for the following week.. When they arrived they started poking around and making the Dreaded noises no one wants to hear.. Sucking in of air and tutting...after more poking and frowning they decided they couldn't touch it and it was classed as ID....  As in immediately dangerous!!

The whole of the stove pipe was blocked and at an illegal 90deg and Ray needed some new fire bricks. They also said they couldn't be sure what else might be needed until they took the pipe down... I could honestly have cried it all sounded so expensive.

They suggested that if the pipe work was to be moved around you may as well move Ray over to the chimney wall.

We had always thought that day was in a weird kind of place so it's kind of fated and forced out hand to jiggle it about a bit (although it's about 5 years earlier that our bank account would have wanted!)

Here is ray's original spot..

(The angle of the death-pipe just out of shot!)

Day One

Day Two

You can see the original arch of the fireplace from when the downstairs would have been one room... It huge!

This is now the third week of Ray being off and I don't like it! We're lucky I didn't book the service in January I couldn't have coped giving birth at home without the warmth of Ray! We have the back up boiler but the water doesn't get that hot and we wouldn't have managed to fill the pool.