I grew up with an old smoke dragon, I have very fond memories of dozing off in my Dad's LazyBoy after a long day of skiing with my feet roasting next to the stove.
Fast forward to adulthood, I lived in quite a few cities overseas, and then rented in Boston for a few years with my current wife - no woodstoves in any of those locations. While I was overseas my wife called me and said that she landed her dream job 200 miles from where my permanent station was. She is not from the area and thought that the location was closer, so over Skype I tell her we can discuss it and figure out our options. Well, it's too late for that she says, I already accepted the job (gotta love her!). OK, I will deal with it when I get back stateside.
Next day she calls and says that they called her back and offered her a different location that was about 90 miles from my permanent station - things are looking better! The new location put us west of the city, holy cow, now our budget could actually buy a real house
Well, after literally walking through 62 houses (our realtor was counting) we found our very drafty, rambling, old, dream house with 3.75 acres and a beat up VC 2550. I immediately fell back into my woodburning from my youth. I can only imagine how many gallons of oil this beast of a house would use - I am thinking at least 1200 gallons a year, maybe more.
Then we picked up 18.75 more acres that is contiguous to our home (I had to sell that purchase pretty hard - I NEED a woodlot and a place to walk the dog afterall), purchased a Defiant 2n1 and thats where we stand today.
My wife and kids are warm, I enjoy being self sufficient, and I am not broke due to heating bills. I don't see myself ever giving up burning wood as long as I remain in this home, and I plan to die here. So as long as my physical health is solid I will continue to cut my own wood and rely on wood as my major/primary heat source.