Looking for some advice as me and DP are both DIY newbies!
We had our old back boiler replaced and have now been left with a small hole in the wall for our fireplace. We have cleared out the rubble and levelled the floor out, but we are wondering if we are able to widen the fireplace?
We would like to get the fireplace plastered over and the plan is to fit an electric wood burner (we do not have the budget for the real thing). With the size of the hole now we could fit the very smallest electric wood burner, but ideally we'd like to widen it, taking out one row of bricks from each side (hope that makes sense?)
We can see the lintel but have no idea how long it is and I obviously we don't want to do anything that could cause the walls to collapse 
Would we need to get someone out to take a look and give us the go ahead? Is there anyway we can know how much we could widen it by?
Thanks!