I don't have a good picture of the downstairs fireplace, but this one kind of shows what is going on. The fireplace was installed on the wrong wall. Most of the time people want to sit in front of the fireplace. But the fireplace is directly across from the craft room door, and in between the kitchen and dining room (the dining room used to be their family room). So one can't sit in front of the fireplace without blocking the line of traffic from the kitchen to the dining room. Not to mention there is no gas plumbed to it, so it is a wood burning fireplace which is extremly messy. We had no use for it, and decided to take it out.
It was easier for Zac to just remove the drywall around the fireplace with the tile still attached. Then he cut the chimeny off with a demolition blade (yes, that's what it's called) and Sawzall and removed the firebox. We will flip the fireplace around 180 degrees and punch through the other side to put the fireplace on the back porch. But that's for a future project.
Zac then framed up the hole and installed more insulation.
Then installed drywall over the hole. With the texturing one won't even be able to tell there was once a fireplace there.
