Well, Christmas has been and gone so I thought I'd update you all on how it went.
First off, the refurb itself was a success, I had to get a second replacement screen as the first one was faulty, but that one worked fine. once I got the new white screen in place and switched it on to see the Apple logo I was chuffed. Did have one small problem where the wifi signal was tinkle poor, looked it up and realised that a small piece had popped out when I put it back together, I think it's the same part that elyid was saying about a couple of posts ago, found that put it back in and now it's working perfectly again.
Gave it to the wife, explained that it's not brand new but as good as and she was delighted. Looks like I got away with it. So Southstand, about that man of the year nomination!