Fireplace Dilemma

Those who know me will know that I am a great sufferer of insomnia. Hence here we are at 4:00am trying to come to a decision on the fireplace for the kitchen.

When our house was built, the centre peice of the kitchen would have been a very grand, granite fireplace as opposed to the brick monstrosity and orange doors we presently have there. Sometime during the last 100 years, quite possibly just after the second world war when large peices of granite were taken from old buildings in the area to assist in the rebuild elsewhere, the once great fireplace departed from our kitchen.

You may be wondering what the dilemma in all this is. About 8 months ago, I found a stunning example of a 17th century Norman fireplace. As with all things I have learnt through life, if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it. Well we had to ask the price and were willing to snap it up at 1500 euros. Turns out they want 6800 euros so it was a non starter. Last Friday, I found another one, this time with a price. To give you an idea of size, this beast is 2.5m wide at the lintel, and from the floor to the underside of the lintel is 1.7m.

The first good bit of news is that, at a push, we can afford this beast. The second good bit of news is that, in Norman terms, it's local at only 35km away. The final good bit of news is that it's both the right size and right period for our kitchen. Now for the down side. It's located on the side of a slope in a muddy farmers feild. It weighs in excess of 6 tonnes. In order to install it in my kitchen, you have to knock almost right through the centre wall, over 3 foot of stone, in order to install the cantilever stones that support the front lintel.

Very few jobs have ever daunted me in the way this one does. I try to look at it with my lottery playing hat on, "the potential gain far exceeds the potential loss" but really this logic does not work here as I could lose our home in exchange for 6 tonnes of granite. Could I achieve the grandeur required using a couple of facing stones and a railway sleeper?

Decisions, decisions, decisions.........

All advice greatfully recieved