Why take out the FP? If they want their plastic teat, they can stick it in front of the FP, and if they burn the place down through their stupidity, that’s what insurance is for.

I highly doubt that taking out the fireplace will get you more rent in any case. Given a clean-looking apartment, tenants in desireable areas ain’t that picky.

Maybe in 10 years, we’ll have flexible big-screen TVs that you can just unroll and hang on a wall, or have them automagically unroll from the ceiling when needed.