Personally, I LOVE my woodstove. I have waited YEARS to "trade in" my DV Gas stoves (old house) for a real wood stove. It was put in the week after we closed on the house-I spent a chunk of vacation time doing the stone work on the hearth pad that DH built (he made the frame, I set and grouted the stones). We CSS our own wood and are hopefully (depending on the weather) about 7 to 10 years ahead so we'll have good seasoned wood to burn. Just doing that was pretty hard work (we put up in the range of 30 cords in the past two years). We heat exclusively with wood, with two small backup propane heaters (one 10K BTU blue flame in the utility area and a small VF "fireplace" in the dining room) just in case. But otherwise we have no other heat source-no furnace whatsoever. Here's my opinion of what it's worth having lived this way now going on three years. I don't know if I would have done anything differently. Right now we don't have the budget to put in a secondary heating system-we're discussing splits because there's really no space for ducting and we don't really want pipes everywhere again for radiant. HOWEVER, not having a "true" back up system makes going away midwinter pretty difficult. It's not like a typical "hey can you stop by and pick up my mail" kind of thing to ask family/friends, someone would need to really come by at least 2x a day to feed it. On the other hand, we paid maybe $100 for heat last season if you figure the cost of fuel for the saws and splitter and truck (we "scrounge" our wood-meaning, we pick up wood people are giving away) and chain sharpenings. We need to get our own sharpener. We also get to see the flames dancing away in the stove all winter. Our stove is a main feature of our living room, and because of how our house is set up, you see it right when you walk in the house too. It heats whether there's electric or not and we can cook on it also. I don't find it terribly messy. I use a wood bag to bring the wood in, and an old wood crate on the hearth pad to store about a day's worth. I have a little dust vac to clean up any hearth mess (**being careful to do so BEFORE loading the stove so no embers might accidently get vaccumed up). When run and installed properly there's no smoke or anything in the house.

Is this prefinished or site-finished wood? Aside from that, whats underneath the flooring has to dry out thoroughly by removing the wood and checking the substrate with a moisture meter until you go back far enough to hit dry sub-flooring or dry concrete. That needs to dry out good "before" you cover it over again.

Hi All! Does anyone know who manufactures the Huntley Woods line for Crate & Barrel??? Or a company that makes a similar style for less? I actually got a KILLER deal on a Huntley Woods sectional from my local C&B store last year. I guess they had mismarked the sale price on it and I ended up saving over 40% on their regular price. I loved the couch once I got it, except for one thing...the fabric showed signs of wear and actually ended up looking incredibly stained within days!!! The salepeople at my local C&B were super nice and tried their best to help, but unfortunately, the higher ups refused to do anything other than give me another couch in the same fabric, which they admitted was defective, OR they offered to sell me one in another fabric but I would have lost every single penny of my discount and have to pay more than the original price for the sectional in an "upgraded" fabric. I guess the fabric was such a problem, that they actually pulled the Huntley line from stores for a while. I visited the store recently and see that they are carrying it again, but it still has the same type of fabric. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could point me in the right direction in finding the manufacturer of the sofa or someone who makes a similar style. (I did agree with another post about the feather issue, that was kinda annoying.) Thanks for all your help!!!! :0)

Jubilante, I did not want metal just bc I prefer a softer look. Teak is nice, that is what our table, chairs and bench are made of. I just preferred the look of the rattan and its solid and weather proof. At least time will tell if it is weather proof!