Renovation of a stone chimney

Now it's warmer I have removed our wood burning stove which was only plumbed in temporarily. Last Autumn we had a French stonemason come to partly renovate the chimney in our main room downstairs. He replaced the granite mantlepiece and restored the structure of the chimney. It was a heft job cos that piece of granite is 2.2m long and 1.7m off the ground. Because of time and money constraints, I am going to face the back of the fireplace with stone and lime mortar to match the surround and build a hearth for the wood burner.

Hopefully it should look something like this once I've finished, but with a woodburner instead of ornaments.

This week we have three different nationalities staying in the gites, one Irish, one Austrailan and one Belgium. Quite a mixture.