I want to thank everyone for their responses. I got a lot of information that I wasn't expecting. We made an offer on the house we were looking at and it got turned down- too big a difference between what we thought it was worth and what the seller thought it was worth. I'll still keep all of these suggestions in mind as we look at other properties. Of all the ideas we were given, I think the masonry stove is still very interesting- yes I know it takes more work than the other heaters take, but I just like the idea. I think we'd need to build a house to get something like that to fit in it in a way that makes sense. I also liked the other ideas- I never considered coal and will look into that more. I never heard of mini-split heat pumps, and they sound kind of intriguing. Also the wood furnace looked good (especially if retrofitting in an existing house). For reasons I can't explain, I'm not a big fan of the outdoor burners. I couldn't have pictured it in the neighborhood we were looking at anyway. If something happens that's worth reporting on, I'll put in more comments. For now, thanks again.

There are a few things to look for in an outdoor wood furnace. First be sure that it has the proper safety certifications; UL, Warnock Hersey, or CSA. Buying a wood furnace without proper certifications will only cause hassles with your insurance company. Also consider the length of time the manufacturer has been building furnaces. Not just selling them but BUILDING them. There are a few companies that claim to be leaders in the industry yet have only been building their own furnace for a year or two. Avoid them. Even their name may only be three or four years old. Find a manufacturer that has been in the industry as long as their warranty. How can a company that has been building their own furnace for a year or two offer any validity to a twenty year warranty. Another thing to look for is "simplicity." A simple round firebox has the fewest welds and therefore a much less chance for weld failure. Buy a unit with a 1/4th inch thick steel firebox and water jacket. Stainless is not necessary with the advancements in water treatments for protection from corrosion. Make sure you buy a furnace with a forced draft also. It will burn far more efficient than a natural draft furnace. Yes, I sell wood furnace but I am not here to sell you a furnace. I would rather educate you on some of the important facts about them. I have been in the industry for over five years and have installed over 150 units. Just pay attention. If it sounds too good to be true, "It Is."

Prior to the introduction of the EPA and the Clean Air Act in 1972 it was customary for single family residential homes in the suburbs to have an empty 55gal barrel in the back yard. The barrel was stood on end, the top was cut out, and they punched about a dozen 2" or 3" holes around the bottom to let air in. The household trash was collected in paper grocery bags and once a day just before sunset they would take the trashbags out, drop them in the barrel and burn the trash. We were supposed to have a heavy screen to lay over the top of the barrel to prevent sparks from flying out, but most ppl ignored that. As you might imagine, there was always some trash that didn't burn, cans, vegetable peelings & such so about once ever month or six weeks we had to haul the barrel to the town dump and dump it out. In the larger cities and ppl of means in the suburbs had an indoor trash incinerator, which is what I think the unit in the first photo is. The trash incinerator was a simple burner that you dropped your trash bag in and as it burned it had a flue pipe connected to the house chimney to carry the smoke out. Some actually had a gas burner to effect a better combustion of the trash, but either way, you had to open the door on the bottom and shovel out the excess that didn't burn. Opearting a home trash incinerator is strictly prohibited today. The large dark unit in the second photo appears to be a coal fired furnace, athough without seeing the rest of the top I can not tell if that one is a steam or hydronic boiler. To start a coal fired boiler or furnace you began by opening the firebox door and building a small wood fire. Once the wood was burning good you put a little coal on it and waited till the coal was burning good before adding more. From a cold start it usually took about two hours of close attention until you had a full fire up. Once it was burning good you had to go down about once ever 3 to 4 hours and shake the grate (the pull handle on the left side) to break up any clinkers on the grates, then add a couple shovels of coal. At night you went down right before bedtime, shook the grates and added about 4 or 5 shovels of coal, then open the ash pit door on the bottom and get 3 or 4 shovels of ashes, which you carefully spread over top of the coal so the coal would only smolder overnight, and first thing in the morning, even before coffee, you had to go down and use a poker to break up the ash klinker on top and shovel some coal on to get the heat up again. On the ash pit door there should be a flat panel that is hinged from the top, which is called the draft door, and it was connected to a damper chain from a pulley above the furnace. On the first floor of the house there was a brass knob on the wall that was connected to that damper chain. If you wanted to turn the heat up you turned the knob and it would open draft door allowing more air into the firebox and heating the fire up, but careful, The chimeny flue had a barometric draft relief door that would normally regulate the amount of draft ofer the fire, but if you opened the draft door too much, the fire would get too hot and you ran a serious risk of a chimney fire. Growing up in the 50's & 60's it was a right of passage for boys about 10 years old to learn how to burn the trash and stoke the furnace. The smaller unit to the left of the furnace in the second picture is an oil fired hydronic boiler. If you look on the large copper pipe on the front of it you can see a black section that is the circulating pump for the hydronic system. In both of those boilers the water is contained inside cast iron sections and if the boilers were not properly drained it is almost a foregone conclusion that the water has froze and cracked the cast iron over the years of sitting idle. It also almost goes without say that over the years of storage the firebrick & refractory lining in the fireboxes has deteriorated beyond use by humidity. My greater concern is Asbestos. Both of those boilers will have to be dismantled in place before they can be taken out and they contain substantial amounts of asbestos. It will require complete containment by a professional Asbestos Abatement crew to dismantle and remove those boilers and that can be very expensive...did your realtor disclose that fact at the time of sale?

Most modern tables are veneer over a substrate, generally MDF. So you have a number of failure points: - Finish not UV or water resistant - Glue not water resistant - MDF will irreversibly swell when wet - Veneer can peel loose - Wood likely to warp or crack under extreme swings in temperature and humidity. Without seeing and investigating the particular piece, there's a quite high chance it will be trash within a year.