Nicely put. Yeah, 'Cheap is twice dear.'

Soot is dirtier, and spreads further than you ever want to know.

Obviously, watching Dick Van Dyke and his friends in the film Mary Poppins cannot be considered training for such a skilled job

Like anything, there's more to it than meets the eye. Possibly the most useful skill is knowing what can go wrong and how to fix it before it goes nuclear.

That you'll only achieve with experience.

Every now and then the lady of the house would tell us that her husband did it the previous time, followed by a breakdown of the costs of replacing carpets, curtains, furniture and redecorating, winding up with a graphic breakdown of exactly she was going to do to him if he ever again so much as looked at a set of rods.

Fair brought a tear to the eye it did.