Living Room Limbo.. need comments

My {first} husband and I almost always agree on design ideas for the house!   We have similar tastes and we are both highly motivated by budget friendly ideas. This is our living room and it shares a wall that leads into our family room.  We both agree that we don’t want a traditional living room.   Our floor plan consists of our living room being located smack  in the middle of the main floor, so it is pretty accessible (meaning we use it and everyone can see the crap lined up by the stairs).  Looks nice in this photo! Just wait to see what it looks like today!

It is a place for us to read, check email or have a conversation without ESPN blaring from the other room.   The chaise angled in the corner was a friend’s idea and I haven’t moved it in years.  It anchors the room and it is a great spot to read while waiting for kids to come home or just relax.  Fast forward to this spring and  I started watching Chip and Joanna from Fixer Upper and decided walls can come down! Here are my rough pics of what I want to do in this space:

1. Tear down this wall and ideally build a 2 story, 2 sided fireplace.  However, I would be willing to compromise and not build the double sided stone fireplace..yet

2. Here’s what on the opposite of the wall.  I see this as an open space: no wall.

And here is what is behind the living room wall:

Here is the view from the hall that extends the width of the two rooms and the width of the windows along both rooms. My husband is stuck on “What would we do with the television and current fireplace?” Minor Details!

Fast forward to this spring. I cleared most of the room so I could better visualize the space. But our 14 month old Berner “puppy” has made this her loft. So I took it a step further. Scroll down one more time!

So now what? Obviously no walls would come tumbling down without a contractor  (or Chip from Fixer Upper) to evaluate the wall?  Should I just leave it and keep the wall? Would it be too open without the wall? If you notice both rooms have a set of windows with views of the mountains and the shutters are down in both rooms -which restarted this discussion. Comments  appreciated!