We're in the midst of a major remodel. Exterior of house used to have stucco and we demo'd it all and are having Hardie plank installed. The problem is the chimney on side of house is comprised of 50+ year old brick and it took a beating in the demo when they removed the stucco so the surface is extremely uneven and somewhat crumbly.

It's a 2 story house so the upper portion of the chimney has been framed in and will be sided with Hardie plank. I was told that the bricks comprising the bottom portion of the chimney (shown in attached photo) are too uneven and crumbly to support firring for siding install, so instead we were going to cover it with stucco. Having Hardie on top and stucco on the bottom is my 2d choice (1st choice being entire chimney covered with Hardie plank) but I could live with it. We live near the beach and the houses are ridiculously close together so you can't see the bottom portion of my chimney at all (on side of house) unless you navigate around my neighbor's thick bushes and are right up against my house.

All good, except today I was told I need sheet metal flashing at the transition from the Hardie plank on top to the bricks/stucco below. It will cost $700 just for the flashing, so now my 2d choice is a lot less attractive.

What can I do? It seems my options are 1) demo chimney and rebuild with ? to fir out sides and cover with Hardie, 2) proceed with $700 flashing and cover chimney with Hardie on top/stucco on bottom. Any other options? Admittedly I know nothing about chimneys and this came up as a last minute issue as the siding sub is about to finish up the siding.

Thanks in advance for any input.