The Porch
Super Self-Sufficient
my recommendation for if you do end up in a more isolated situation is to avoid having a wood burning fireplace as it is a lot of work to keep up and use and if you are concerned about heating in the winter during a power outage that propane and a fake fireplace or fake stove that can be used for alternative heat is much better. it will keep you from freezing until the power comes back on and then you don't have to deal with anything other than making sure the tank gets filled up once in a while. no wood making, no splitting, stacking, carrying, no ashes or smoke to deal with.
the thing is, i love fire and i really would have loved it had we kept our fireplace as a fireplace for burning wood but the smoke isn't compatible at all with either of us so we had it converted into propane and that has worked well enough. except it was not a very good conversion in terms of heating efficiency so you can be sure to not make our mistake and get a unit that is more efficient in producing heat. and if you want to use it as a cooking surface then make sure it has those features. we just take old cans and set them off to the side and heat things up in those. it's like camping but we can still sleep in our own beds.
I'll take wood over the cost of propane,
