Welcome Barbra!
Let me start by saying, your questions are asked here almost everyday. There’s a ton of information here, all you have to do is look.
I don’t think I’m up to tackling all your questions, but I will suggest you fix or replace your existing broken furnace/boiler. While a pellet stove would very likely heat your home by itself, I personally would feel better knowing you have a (backup) main central heating system. Some have converted over to central pellet heating, but I’m not sure that’s a wise move for everyone at this point.
With that said, in order for someone to suggest a stove size, we’d need to know how many sq. ft. your house is… “small cape” isn’t very descriptive for sizing a stove. How well your place is insulated and sealed is another important factor. What condition are the doors and windows in? Where would the stove be located? Is the floor plan fairly open?
1) Based on the generic info you’ve provided, my guess is you’ll probably need a 35k-50k stove to cover most of your heating needs.
2) Since I’m not from your area, I can’t tell you where to get pellets from, although there are a couple of web sites you can order from… some of which are mentioned in other recent threads in this forum.
3) My family really likes the heat from a pellet stove, but that’s subjective. Generally speaking, I think most people like the quality of heat these stoves produce.
4) I highly recommend pellet stoves for supplemental heating. You can likely get away with using one as your only source of heat, but as I said above, I highly recommend having a central heating system and using it as a backup or addition to your stove.
5) Loaded question! You’ll have to do your own homework on what pellets you like best since most people have their own preferences… and every stove typically likes some pellets better than others. Your best bet is to try a few and see which ones you like and then buy those in bulk. If this isn’t possible, see what others are using in similar stoves. Stoves? You won’t hear many bad things about Harman or Quadra stoves, but see what your local dealer carries and go from their.
Lastly, do your own homework.
Best of luck,
Scot