You wont need to do anything with the parking brake or the housing. It's the cover around the shifter (park, reverse, neutral, etc.) that needs to be removed. I just went out and removed mine to be sure to give you specific details. In the space where your cup holder just was, look at the front top part of the space. There are a couple of openings. There are tabs inside of there on the top which hold the shifter cover in place. I found that if I push in the tab on the right (it's all the way up top), the other one released on it's own. This will allow you to pull up the cover part way. Now for the hard part I failed to mention before. This cover is two-piece and the outer portion must be removed from the inner piece. The inner piece is the one with the "W" (for winter driving) button on it and has wires which don't allow it to lift up as far as you will need it. There are four tabs which hold the inner cover to the outer one, one on each corner. Feel around to find these tabs. The back ones are easy to get to, the front ones are a bit harder. I used an allen wrench to push in and release the tabs. If you can get a screw driver to work for you, it will be easier, but there are some funny angles to reach some of the tabs (including the very first two back in the cup holder area). Once you've released the tabs to separate the two covers, the outer one will lift up to reveal the hex nuts on the climate control.

If you have any further difficulty, let me know and I'll take some digital pictures for you.

Let me know how it works out.