We moved into our home 2 years ago today and even though we are in the deep South, we didn't realize that when the seasons changed from summer to winter, it would be cold! It is a damp kind of cold here and in an old home (built in 1925) the floors are cold and the windows and doors "breathe" easily. Our first winter here, we spent our whole first year's natural gas allowance in 2 months....so I went out and bought a couple space heaters and we lived in the back of the house. After we had our chimney inspected, they said the masonry was so deteriorated that we would have to line the whole thing, etc. = VERY expensive and still inefficient as far as a source of heating the house.

Last year, we had insulation blown in the attic and using the space heaters and sometimes the central heat, we made it through. This year, after some saving and lots of research done by Sy (I wish I had a picture of him in front of the computer wearing his hat, gloves, and his sweater & fleece jacket looking at wood burning stoves!) we had a wood-burning stove put in.

This "Freedom" Stove by Lopi is about 500 lbs. and took two men, one big dolly, a huge dowel rod, and 4 hours to install.
What a difference warmth makes :)