firefighterjake said:As other folks have said . . . or asked . . . there may be some other alternatives . . . and some good questions have been asked (i.e. need for a rear vent, are you truly married to the idea of an ash drawer, are you sure you wouldn't consider a stove with a cat, etc.)
I will say if budget is truly an issue you should look at Englander, Napoleon and Regency woodstoves to see if any of these would suit your needs as they are relatively no-frills, but hard working woodstoves.
If you want something a little fancier that should check off every box you could go with the Jotul Oslo or F-600 . . . the Oslo can be run with either a rear or top vent and it has a functional ash drawer that I use all the time. It also burns quite well and is near bullet-proof (much like the old Ashley) and in my case I would guess I'm heating 95% of the winter here in Maine with my woodstove (the oil boiler is relegated to stand by duty if I am away from the home for an extended length of time or for those sub zero nights when the temps dip below 60 degrees in the morning before I wake up.) For comparison purposes, I'm heating 1,800 square feet in a 1970s vintage two-story Cape with moderate insulation (mostly 2 x 4 walls) . . . and for the record . . . after loading up the stove around 9:30 p.m. and heading to bed by 10 p.m. I don't get up until 4:30-5:30 a.m. and it's rare that the temps have hit the 60 degree mark . . . plus there's always enough coals to do a reload.
Thank you for your imput. I posted some pictures to hopefully explain the need for the rear vent. We really don't want to have to redo our wall. I am not completely set against the cats, and actually kind of impressed with them, but I have to convince my husband that we need to clean the chimney every year, much less a catalytic converter. Even still it has been two years since we cleaned our chimney. The ash drawer was one of my husband's must haves (because he is primarily the one that tends to the stove) and with the woodstove being our only real heat we dont want to let the fire burn out in order to shovel out the ashes.