Follow these steps very carefully now....

1) have an eye sore that blocks valuable real estate in your basement.
At Chez Fletcher it is a gas fireplace that, in the 40 years since the house was built, has NEVER been lit. Go back and re-read that and yes, it is true. The logs were there but had not even been attached to the gas line that fed it.

2) live in this afore mentioned house for 17 of the above mentioned 40 years and complain regularly about what a waste of space this gas fireplace is and how it is not Code and surely it will be a pain to remove and fix the area.

3) on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008, FINALLY notice, when you lean on the fireplace, that the mantle is not attached to the fireplace and lift it off, look inside, only to say in very foul language that you see it is only attached to the wall by 2 screws and some wire. AND that the paneling IS indeed whole behind the fireplace.

4) call the hubby over to also look and then laugh hysterically while he goes and gets his wire cutters.

5) pull the G*D D**N thing off the wall, break it up and put it out in the yard to go to the dump on Saturday.

Now there IS a hole in the carpet the exact shape of the fireplace but we pulled a rug over it and it is GONE! This will be replaced in the future when all the carpet in the basement is replaced later in the year. As of now unless you had been here at say, 4:30 you would never know it existed.

All this was done in under 2 hours.

Plus 17 years to discuss it.....