Redo the hearth? What size stove to buy?

We're trying to decide what's the best thing to do.

We have had an enviro empress pellet stove insert in our fireplace that has died, and since we don't like the fan noise, would like to install a wood stove instead of an insert to replace it. We already sunk money in trying to repair it, and that repair did not work.

We have a large open floor plan with cathedral ceilings and a loft upstairs with bedrooms off of it.

We have a masonry heater that we installed in the middle of the downstairs.

We also have 2 toddlers.

We try not to use any oil, so had the empress running 24/7 using 2-3 bags of pellets a day and went through about 3 cords of wood last year in addition with the masonry heater.

We've been looking into woodstock stoves.

The fireview would fit on our existing hearth, but we'd still have to do something in front of the hearth since it wasn't really designed for wood stoves in terms of preventing the carpet from going up in flames in front of it.

The progress hybrid would not fit on our existing hearth.

The ideas so far include: extending the hearth about a foot so that it would satisfy all the needs of putting the progress hybrid on it and maintain the aesthetics of the design.

Getting rid of the existing hearth and having a hearth remade that is more flush with the floor (this would be safer for our twin toddlers) and getting the progress hybrid.

Installing the fireview on the hearth and putting a hearth pad in front of the hearth, which would not be aesthetically as nice.

Installing the fireview and making the hearth a little higher to satisfy the safety requirements. Since our hearth is just 20 inches deep, the fireview would probably have to be slightly back in the fireplace a couple of inches since it is also 20 inches deep.

Cost is a factor.

The progress hybrid would give us more flexibility, but do we really need it since we also have the masonry heater? Is the fireview adequate?

Is modifying the hearth just for the sake of aesthetics for wood stove burning worth it? We do have to look at it every day.

The other option is continuing to try to repair the empress of course. We're hoping we would actually spend less on wood/pellets with a woodstock stove.

Just to give an example, in this shoulder season, we've been using 2-3 loads of wood a day to keep the masonry heater warm enough. It definitely is a supplemental heater. Last year we used the pellet stove for the shoulder season.

about 2200 sq feet

The more I'm reading on here, the more I want to get a wood stove. I will try to post some pictures later on if I can figure out how to so that it will be easier to see the layout for deciding what size stove to get. Building up the hearth may make it safer for the twins who are now 14 months and very active. I'm leaning towards the progress hybrid since it would be great to have a stove as a primary heater and be able to use the masonry heater as supplemental. Just not sure if we can do it in the budget this year. Any other advice?

it's pretty big, 36 inches tall by 42 inches across. We have a lot of windows and cathedral ceilings. We've done a lot of insulating and air sealing but we know we're losing a lot through our ceiling still. So even with the enviro empress insert at full blast (rated for 2000 sq ft and the masonry heater it wasn't as warm as I would like it with cooler pockets in many areas of the downstairs. Right now there's cold air coming through the chimney so we're thinking of making a block off plate. My husband is in audio engineering so he's very sensitive to noise.

There is a liner already that was installed when we installed the pellet stove insert.

Any other ideas? We're still waiting on a quote from the mason and we don't like to take out loans but are trying to decide if we should use our home equity loan to pay for this upgrade. Is it worth it for the long term value of the house?