When we first viewed the house we realised the living room space was too small for what we were looking for. However, there was a wall dividing that room from the breadoven room, and so we took it on faith that we'd be able to remove that wall without the house falling down. Fortunately our faith was rewarded and Graham's brother, Keith - who is a structural engineer - confirmed that, as long as we followed a number of guidelines, we'd be able to remove it. And so we did.
First off, we had to make a hole at each end of the wall, large enough to fit a block of concrete called a pad stone. This supports the wooden beams which span the room and support the upper floor when the wall is removed. After they are installed and fixed we knock out a letter-box type slot from end to end. This allows us to slip the beams in and rest them on the pad stones. The beams are bolted together with 16 millimetre stud bar and then we begin the process of removing the stone wall beneath the beams. Outside Rog and Barb had prepared a wall of gabions whose purpose was to contain the rock coming out of the wall. More of that below. When the wall was removed we left a stub of wall, about a metre in depth either side, and finished this off by edging and pointing it. The stub was left for structural reasons - giving more solidity to the beams as well as the external walls.

So, during the demolition and remodelling of the wall divide the breadoven was cleaned and restored. That involved lots of barbeque cleaner, wire brushes attached to grinders and elbow grease. Pretty happy with the result. This will not be a functioning bread oven but it will be a feature of the living room and will be wired for lighting.