Progress Hybrid install

Today I finally get time to sit down and share some pics of our Progress. Our quest for our first ever wood stove has taken over a year. I am so very relieved that it has been more than worth the wait. The worsening world economy and two successive rounds of epic ice storms (no power for two weeks with each) brought us to rip out the useless ventless gas fireplace and huge mantle that came with our home. I studied and shopped and traveled many miles looking at every possible wood stove that we could install. Internet searches led me to this good forum and others--and also to Woodstock Soapstone. I am not an easy sell, and tend to view happy, peppy, bursting with love product endorsements with a skeptic's eye.....
so here I am with a very happy endorsement all my own.

Others with much more experience have written excellent reviews of this stove. All I can offer is the the wood burning newbie's point of view. This stove installed quick and easy for us. The original owner's manual was missing the crucial break-in fire directions--and I am so very very grateful to Dennis for posting his own on this forum. Nothing like installing over the holiday weekend with no experience for a confidence builder. Break in went smoothly with those good directions. Fires start dang quick and have been easy for me to fine tune from day one. The damper does run nearly fully closed for us, but over burn has not yet been a problem, even though we are sited a thousand feet above a valley on a West bluff face and have raging winds to contend with. I have not yet run a fully packed load, but tend to go all day or all night with a 3/4 load and stove top temps running consistently around 400. Our home has a 22' ceiling in the central room, and both floors have stayed toasty. We are installing vents above the doors in rooms we will keep closed to pet traffic and that should work well. I'm not used to staying so warm in winter, and this has been a real change for me. My Hubby is ecstatic. So are all the other critters ;-) I may have to throw myself out the front door to make snow angels in my skivvies...if we would just get some snow.... nothing like a hot flash and a Progress Hybrid combo to keep me loving winter.

My experience with Woodstock mirrors other folks on this forum. Service has been very prompt and it is so nice to deal with good people. Design and execution on this new stove is excellent IMO.

Thanks to all for the kind words. The install did go remarkably well, considering the stove design had not yet been finalized when we constructed the hearth. Got to build when the help is available, you know? It is a bit of a nail biter when you have to trust a manufacturer long distance and without a local showroom. Hearth.com Forum has been a great help to this newbie, and I hope that i can give back in some way to others who are in the same circumstance we were in getting started.

Here is an additional photo as requested. I hope that I have properly duded up the hearth to suit the tastes expressed here..... Included are nicely sooted gloves, tools (bellows is TOTALLY unnecessary with this stove), steamer and Ecofan--with twenty one year old VERY happy feline. I am considering a start up business of manufacturing 'dunking birds' with cast iron feet. That should complete the look and fill the remaining millimeters of stove top.

(The jackalope is indeed an eight pointer and quite a trophy for me. That was one difficult stalk to get within bow range, let me tell you.)

I could not be happier with this stove's performance thus far. Had one little soapstone piece detach from beneath the loading door. This piece is not a part of the main body. I believe it's primary function is as a bumper for the frame to keep logs from wedging under the side door. Woodstock was gracious and immediate in sending me furnace cement to re-attach it. Very minor bit of failed adhesive that was easily corrected. Service has been top notch, even after the sale.

The hearth is faced with a porcelain tile that has a rough surface just like hand cut stone. BV, if you want the manufacturer and style #, email and I will be happy to send it to you The mosaic trim is inexpensive and found at Lowe's. The wood bin pass-through door is made from an old German carved panel that was hanging on our wall. We lined it with tile scraps and framed it with oak milled from our trees here. The bin holds enough for a week or so and should be just the ticket to keep many-leggeds from warming up and roaming the house.

Our current construction project is a wood shed near the house that will hold a cord of already cured wood. This will keep us fueled through any ice storm, but not require us to leave a fire and termite hazard near the house in the off season. Three cords are already split and stored away from the home. Better and more permanent cover for that will be yet the next item on the list.
So far, So Great. If anyone would like further info on our experience to date with Woodstock, just give me a holler. I am happy to give them a big thumbs up.

We do have a southpaw in the family, but the left door is necessary due to where we wanted to site the chimney and chase. There is a four foot octagonal window centered below the peak above, and we needed to jog the chimney over a hair to keep it from interfering with the chase. The strange shape of the hearth will allow me to place a shelf/mantle above the pass through after I get the brackets carved. and extra hearth space is a good idea when moving logs about. Keeping the bugs hibernating out in the cold is a great feature of the pass through, too.
This stove puts out a lot of heat and is doing a great job keeping us toasty. We have 2700sq ft floor space and are heating approx 21,600cu ft airspace. I may engineer a bypass to route some of the warm air into the basement, just because I can.
It really is a beautiful stove. I can't believe how quickly I can get a fire going and how responsive it is to small adjustments.

Thanks for the props Mr. Moderator Sir

Yes that is a pass through to an external storage bin that will hold enough wood for a week or so. I don't want to keep mass quantities of fuel for both termites and fire so close to a hose with cypress siding. It is lined with PT. The tiny portion of the chimney you see will be chased here in a few days. The upper chase section is long finished, thank heaven. It would not be fun to work up top in the cold and wind! Finishing this las bit under a covered porch should be a piece of cake.

The small woodshed you see in the second and third pics is being built to hold a cord or so near the house so that we can be guaranteed fuel if we are unable to reach our main stash. We have been cut off here for ten days at a time or more after ice storms. This shed may look like it's set for Godzilla, (Yeah, 4x6's may be a little stout) but our wind up here can be bloody fierce. It is enclosed on three sides so that the horizontal rain will not drown already cured wood, or the wind toss it around as mini missiles if things get really interesting. The roofing should be in this week, and then we get the joy of loading it.