Our AGA four oven has the same effect and that is one of the many things we love about it, the warmth it provides. The only way I can describe it to friends is that it's like having a woodstove in the kitchen. DW loves the fact that she can put a kettle on it anytime and boil it instantly.

We have a Victorian gas stove and I love it for the very reasons you say. I set my coffee on it and read the paper in the early AM and it is very toasty. I have an old wheeled office chair and it lives by the stove in the winter. I wish we could have had wood ...you are lucky. Here is a pic: c

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In our last kitchen we had a white Jotul Allagash. I loved it.

Here is a link that might be useful: my old jotul (*tears* i miss you!)

What beautiful fireplaces! I love brick fireplaces (and there is one in the living room) but not enough room in the kitchen.

Sabjimata- I can see why you miss your Jotul! It's perfect in that space :)

Next house! Meanwhile I'm just jealous of these shown here. ;-) Seems like the most wonderful idea, and it's been my dream since watching The Cosby Show and they had a fireplace by their kitchen table. Our barbecue (gas grill) is just outside the kitchen door, or we can start the rangetop with a match if the power is out...Like it was all day yesterday.

i'm putting one in my remodel. it will be a corner rumford with cooking oven for dh's breads and roasts. it does take up valuable real estate, a full seven feet across one corner, if not a little more. but i can burn wood there efficiently, heating the entire house with it. and since i have 36 acres of woods, as long as i can get it cut i'll always have fuel for it. i think it will make my kitchen the main room we all gather in and if i ever sell will be a great feature in my vermont ski area home.
p.s. it's modeled on the one in the cinderella movie from the sixties---i still love the fireplace, though have outgrown the movie,lol.
i can't wait!!

Fallingwaters- I love that fireplace! That's going to look wonderful in your kitchen :)

it will be wonderful i think! wish i could spare the room for that corner little staircase tucked away behind it, i think that would be so great--especially for the grandkids. though i bet the cats would use it the most often! my architect tried to tell me it wouldn't be up to code, i just laughed and said it was for the kitties, and an extra emergency exit--just in case...

The staircase would be very cute...I have cats too, and they would love it :)

That Cinderella fireplace is the perfect fairy tale fireplace...I can't wait to see pictures!

I have a Vermont Castings (Defiant Encore) woodstove in my kitchen. We almost replaced it last year with a Jotul Mansfield(?) but with a little extra work, we got the 25 year-old Defiant tuned up a bit better so we stayed with that.

This stove is not a part-time appliance. It is the sole source of heat in the wing and northern half of the house, and one of two wood-buring appliances that are the only heat in this house in northern NY. We put about 4-5 full cords of oak through it per year. This is an important distinction from a w/s or fireplace that is only used for atmosphere, even if that atmosphere is needed continuously for a few of the coldest weeks. Our first fire is usually kindled in mid-October and then, except for monthly chinmney sweeping, it never goes out until early/mid May.

Burning that much wood means that there is considerable, and seemingly, never-ending fuel debris dropped around that I really wish wasn't in my kitchen. I have schemed from time to time to do a room-use exchange with another room and convert the present kitchen into a sitting room, so I can have a sit-by hearth space that isn't in my kitchen.

I don't like to have a mixed-use kithen space and don't really want too much hanging out in the kitchen. This is partly a personal pref., but also related to the placement of my chimney which means the stove is really in the middle of my work zone, so sitters get in the way. The chimney was orginally intended for the wood-fired cookstove that we no longer use, which is why the w/s wound up in the middle of the work zone. Of course if we get to Peak Oil (and gas) or beyond soon, and propane becomes hard to get, then I can take out the Defiant and reinstall my old Stewart wood-fired range and be back in business in a day or so. Despite my affection for old ways, though, I wouldn't be happy with that arrangement, even in in depths of winter. And we'd have to eat cold food in July and August since I can't imagine using it then!

Aside from the wood debris, the other significant issue with any solid fuel appliance in a kitchen has to do with ventilation conflicts. If you plan on having a pro-grade range with higher cfm vent fan(s) then you may bump into safety or code comlications. Higher cfm fans could depressurize the woodburning appliance enough to disturb the draft, or worse, especially if you have one of those gas-fired faux wood burners, draw carbon monoxide into the living space. We get around this (despite having major cfm fan) by a) running the stove in its airtight configuration (i.e. not with doors open, as is technically possible with our stove) and b) feeding our stove's combustion air intake with an outside air connection so it is not drawing from room air. In this way the stove is essentially not connected to room air, and therefore the fans can run happily along without smoke or combustion product issues, or degrading the w/s chimney's draft. Of course, in order to refuel, we do have to open the firebox, but that's only for a few minutes and we never run it open and unattended, even for just the minute or two it takes to fetch another log from the wood room.

The other down side is that even for just the few minutes it takes fuel and kindle the fire, there is some smoke (minor) vented into the house - and the w/s kind of scorches the air so I get more dust stuck on my kitchen tackle (I use a hanging pot rack) in the winter than during the warmer months when I have the windows open for weeks at a time.

The upside is, as you noted, it's nice to have a spot to warm something, like a cup of tea. (Though w/s get really too hot for keeping a cup warm but not too hot to drink.) I set my plates to warm on a trivet set on top, for a few minutes. Mine has a griddle top, but I have used it only rarely, and reluctantly, during power cuts as it is messy. But of course, having a w/s in the kitchen is nice for boiling or warming stuff during power cuts, just not frying. It's too low for much cooking, for one thing.

And, of course, any solid fuel appliance takes a committment to safe operation that can never waver, for even a few minutes. The installation, including all surfaces, clearances and protections and chimney, must be modern and up to code. Houses with small children, and in my case pets, may also need to install hearth fences to protect the unwary.

I have heated only with wood for 40+ years, so I am used to the extra fuss, mess, etc. but every year I have to mentally focus myself all over again in order to never lose sight of the fact that we keep a potentially dangerous, very hot fire trapped in a metal box in the kitchen 24/7 for seven months of the year. (Well, two of them, counting the stove in the other part of the house.) You can not let your attention wander, even for a bit; you must always know what state your fire is in (even when gone from the house). Each year in May, I heave a big sigh of relief when we finally let the fires out.

I believe there is a significant federal tax credit available on qualifying w/s right now, and goes through the end of 2011, I think.

L

L- Thank you for that informative view of your experience with the wood stove. I love how you mention about all of the responsibility too. It does sound like you would have a warm-cozy home during the cold NE winter!

I recently bought a 230 year old colonial with a fireplace in every room, including the kitchen. Actually the one in the kitchen is the biggest one. Love using it to take the chill off in the morning. It also has a swing arm to hang a cooking pot on. Ignore the packing boxes please!

Here is a link that might be useful:

I have friends who lived in Maine for 3 years. They heated their wonderful big old Maine farm house (well, okay, they heated ONE ROOM of this house!) with a wood stove.

My friend said the worst part was that her husband had to spend the entire summer (he was a teacher), cutting wood for that stove - buying it would have been way too costly. So, in fact, it was a TWELVE MONTH bother. They moved from there to Atlanta and her husband has refused to live anywhere that is so cold that the only financially feasible way to heat a house (the WHOLE house) is with wood.

Liri, I don't know how you've done this for so long. It's one reason we never sold our house in KY and bought a house in Maine during the 10 years DH taught there. The dorm apt had baseboard hot water heat and we weren't responsible for it! it was quite cozy!