You can go to a fireplace shop and get some ceramic fiber insulation they use to line chimneys. A brand name is Kaowool. It is very heat resistant and you just stuff some of it into the opening. Problem solved.

I purchased a used Quadrafire Castile pellet stove for the basement. I have a high efficiency heat pump and strips but wanted something for back up that would run off of a small generator if we have an extended power outage. I purchased 2 tons of pellets last winter and when the temps were below 30 or if we were in the basement we ran it on low which is around 1lb or 7500btu/hr. I would turn it to medium when was below 20 and ran it on high when it was in the teens or below and the heat pump was locked out which is 8lbs per hour. The warm floor made the house feel more comfortable which allowed the stat to be a little coolder. It is not hastle free by NO means. It requires regular cleaning and maintenance and the pellets can be a pain for some to deal with. I enjoy going down stairs and sitting in front of it after being outside and freezing all day. I grew up with heat from a wood furnace once you get used to that warmth a heat pump or even heat strips doesn't compare when it is in the teens outside. If the cleaning and maintenance is not kept up then the efficiency will head toward the toilet. There are some models that can go a week or more with no problem and others that need the ashes dumped daily. It isn't horrible by any means but it is not just a pour in the fuel and forget it device. The ability to have a heat source that will operate on stored fuel and less electrical power than a 200 watt light bulb it is pretty hard to beat.

That is a really nice set Rebbecamom. I think your concern was wixe because, from the photos, it looks like the cabinets projecting at the side of the fireplace may cross the zone where you shouldn't have combustibles with a wood fire. At least for our wood burning fireplace, the installation instructions say there should be no combustibles in front of a line that goes out from the side of the firebox at 45 degrees for 24" on each side of the fireplace up to some height above the fireplace. I don't know how universal that requirement is, so perhaps your set up would have been okay with your fireplace. We put in a wood burning fireplace for the family room that is sealed so there is no issue with embers or sparks. It heats the family room really well and provides the look of real flames, but one can't hear the crackling of the fire. Also, we don't feel comfortable running it when our little grandchildren are visiting because the glass gets really hot - if we were going to run it with small children around, we would probably want to put a protective fence of some sort around it which would not help ambiance. It uses external air intake which can be adjusted to control how hot the fire burns and to damp down the rate of burn. It is nice to not have to worry about leaving the fire going when we go to bed. For the living room fireplace, we are considering putting in a gas log set - we have never used that fireplace and have no need of running it for heat, but it would be nice to turn it on occasionally for looks when using the room. We don't need two heating fireplaces and I don't want to deal with wood in the living room.

Trish there is a repair option for your clay liner that will allow you to keep your wood burner. One option is HeatShield®, a chimney liner repair system. https://heatshieldchimney.com/ They claim credit for there technique but my father told me 25 years ago the old school repair for leaking joints and cracks in clay liner was to put a sand bag down the flue, dump the right cement on top of the sand bag and pull it up sealing all leaks, and similar to heatshields method. Another option and what I used 21 year ago was a little more involved. Because my clay liner was already in bad shape when I bought the house the sandbag fix wouldn't work and I didn't want to go gas, not the same. I measured the inside diameter of the clay liner and had a sheet metal shop make a stainless steel rigid rectangular liner 1" smaller then the inside of the clay liner in 3 ft. sections, which I riveted together with stainless steel pop rivets. As far as I know there is no one who sells rectangular rigid liners but do sell round ones. The sheet metal shop knew exactly what I was doing and also added a radius in all four corners to match the clay liner radius. When It got to the bottom I blocked the new liner and sealed the space between the clay liner and the new Stainless liner and From the top I poured a mixture of mortar and vermiculite down the space between the two while taping and shaking the new liner until it was full. The results? I'm still burning wood. Just this week I decided to replace the crown on top my chimney and was able to inspect both liners, the Stainless from the inside and clay from the outside. The stainless looked like the day I put it in with all rivets in perfect shape. The clay liner was sealed up by the mortar/vermiculite mix and believe it will last 50+ years longer. I know this is somewhat involved but it is an option. If you consider this option the mortar/vermiculite mix was 1 part mortar to 2 1/2 parts vermiculite by volume and must be soupy enough to poor. Vermiculite is a noncombustible loose insulation rated for over 2000 degrees. You don't need the mix, just drop in a custom built liner but the mix helps maintain flue temperatures for a better draft and reduced creosote buildup when it's really cold out. A word of caution, the flue size is determined by the size of the fireplace or wood stove opening and the height of the chimney, and needs calculated to determine if you'll be able to do it. I had to do the rectangular size to get the proper amount of square inches to match my burner. Your burner may vary and may be able to use a round liner. Refer to this web site or other sources. https://www.lindemannchimneysupply.com/determining-fireplace-liner-sizing