I have a living room where one wall is a floor to ceiling brick fireplace with some built-in cabinets on either side. My endgame is to have the built-ins still there, drywall on the outside of a new mantel, and the original brick exposed on the inside of the mantel. I also want to place a television over the fireplace. I am aware of viewing angle limitations and heat / soot issues...regretablly there is no better place for the TV due to the slightly awkward layout of the home. Fortunately, I intend to sit far away from the TV (it's a long, narrow room), and I don't really burn anything in the fireplace. I've done a bunch of reading on the subject...but had trouble finding some of the answers I'm looking for So my questions are: -how should i attach the drywall to the brick? directly with some sort of glue? build out a new wall with strapping? should I use something other than drywall like cement board? -does the mantle sit on top of the drywall, or does the mantle attach to the brick and the drywall go up to the outside of it? -what should i do now to make managing cords and mounting the television easier later? obviously the more that's hidden, the better -any general advice or things to plan for? -pictures of your similar project? Thanks, Justin :)

I have a 2 1/2 car garage, and the concrete slab it sits on is pretty cracked and in rough shape. The structure of the garage itself is good and sound. Are there ways to tear out and replace a garage slab without tearing down the existing garage?