After considering where you live I'd put a fireplace or a free standing burner in
and keep myself warm.
I could replace a guitar if I had to a lot easier than a body part freezing off.....just a small technicality.

Hey Mike! Nice room even if you have to work out how to use all winter! The Franklin stove I mentioned sat on a layer of cinderblocks and had a wall of them of them against the two walls of the corner the stove sat in. That held the heat for quite a while and acted like a fan blower moving the warm air around the room. I have no idea if would pass code now (this was in 1978 close to the beach in South Haven)!LOL
    My wife and I would both love to have our own studio spaces and she brought up converting the attached garage as perhaps being an easier-cheaper-faster-closer to being able to use it NOW! idea vs our having a building put up that we would then have to get to....maybe by tunnel HA! during the heavy snow and wind. Anyway I'd love to have 16X20 with 10 foot ceilings. You'll get there! Keep going but take some gloves! HA! It's all more fun to imagine and then afterwards to use, than to work it out. Still that is the step from before to after! Keep us posted!

craigb


One positive if you put a wood-burning fireplace in is easy disposal of any accordian or bagpipes that someone brings over...

With Notre Dame right here, lots of that kinda stuff around

craigb


One positive if you put a wood-burning fireplace in is easy disposal of any accordian or bagpipes that someone brings over...

....and finally an opportunity to put that odd shaped bit of firewood that Bapu is always boasting about to some effective use ;)

Tim's post reminded me of the early days living in this house. Technically, it had no heater in it... nothing useful anyway.  One small LP gas heater in the dining room which could barely warm one room. We pulled it out. 

I bought a woodstove with a catalytic element and a chimney liner, and later installed a 3 wall SS 2100 degree flue.  In the early days I would head out on Saturdays to the woodlots where they had logged the trees and with a chainsaw, gather several loads of "free wood" to burn. I would also buy oak from the local wood cutters when I could afford it.  we heated our old (built in 1890) house (2000 sq ft) with that stove for many years, and eventually installed a gas pack. 

On our last remodel, I removed the top part of the chimney and roofed over the hole..... and installed some non-vented clean burning gas logs in the fireplace in the den after removing the woodstove. I was tired of dragging in wood at 11pm in the rain and snow, and waking next morning to find bugs crawling across the floor... not to count taking out the hot ashes every other day or so. The stove, would burn for a good 10 hrs and be nice and warm in the morning..... but talk about work. 

I store the stove in my shed and perhaps one day, when we move to the hills, I will have a barn where I will once again install and use the woodstove. I like the stove, but not as my main source of heat. There's just something about an open fire that I like. My stove has a screen that fits in the door to allow open fires.... Consolidated Dutchwest Catalytic Wood Stove. Solid cast iron. Stainless steel cook top on it.......Yeah... it's heavy.