Thanks to everyone for their comments!
yak651 - If you are good at doing DYI projects then I think this is something that could be done without too much help. I would explain the project to the distributor/rep who sells you the stone and mud and then soak up everything they tell you (maybe ask if they could help you visit a job site so you could observe for a few hours).
I watched a pair of experts do my fireplace and breakfast bar and I probably could have gone at it from there but...having the pro there made it go much faster and I really learned a lot of techniques and ways to get out of difficult spots.
He helped me the entire time. At the beginning I stuck stone about 1/3 his speed and I only got to about 2/3 his speed after five weekends of 8-10 hrs each day.
We stuck about 850 sq feet and it took about 10 working days to complete with the two of us (I can understand mjarrels taking about a year to complete /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif).
Good luck if you decide to do it yourself. Let me know if I can be of any help.
mjarrels - L&S makes some nice stone. I saved about 75% vs. what I would have paid most people to do the work. My hats off to you working that long to get it done. It was a definate disruptor in my life during the five weekends!
Thanks all.
Fred
P.S. Attached is a picture of the fireplace (which I didn't do).