Water or fire can kill you if you are irresponsible with them, but nobody goes around calling swimming or owning a house with a fireplace dumb. 

We got an awesome gas fireplace for heat in one property.

The comradery around a fireplace when it's cool on a comfortable sectional is memorable (Baines Mountain, Bryson City).

Disposals, water softeners, whole house humidifiers and fireplaces should all be avoided in rental homes.

Either a badly malfunctioning furnace, inept operation of fireplace or could definitely be from the candle burning.

They are great, make a ton of heat, look nice in the fireplace and all, but you gotta have the wood.

A few days later the tenant walks in to hand over a 7 day notice to terminate the lease citing that the fireplace didn't work at their 2018 move in and that their HVAC unit was replaced in the Fall of 2019 and it took 4 days, in mild weather I might add, due to the insurance claim delay.Clearly they've done some online research and are trying to use those items to get out of the lease that ends 8/31.  

The walls are wood paneling, so they do not need to be painted, WA-required water heater straps and carbon monoxide detectors and possibly an insert for the fireplace and chimney. 

This could function to separate the kitchen area from the living room, but from the other side of the room on the left, instead.You could put an electric or gas fireplace that can be seen from both sides or just from the living room side, and then use it for a pantry for the kitchen with access from the end facing the kitchen, and even have some storage from the dining table side. 

Love, love love and I love that you painted the fireplace white, too.