We are considering purchasing a used pellet stove today (a Whitfield Optima 3). I'm fairly certain we will buy it. However, DH and I are not sure where the best location would be for the stove.

We have a traditional two story house with a full basement. Each of the three levels is approximately 800 sq. feet. We don't have a lot of room on the main level where we have our living room/dining room and kitchen. I think it should be in the basement and let the heat filter upstairs. Our basement is, for the most part, unfinished...still has concrete walls on the outside walls, though our sons, age 15 and 10, live down there (it's "boyland"). The rest of the bedrooms are on the 2nd floor. We don't plan on finishing the basement until they are grown up and GONE! lol

DH thinks it should be in our dining room, but some furniture would have to go and I suspect we'd have to spend some money to make it attractive and safe (such as brick on the wall and floor). I also worry that having it in the dining room, where it would be near the thermostat, would make the basement freezing cold during the winter.

We do have an unused fireplace in our living room, and the ideal would be to have an insert in there, but at this time we can't afford a new one and this used one has come up which we feel is a good deal.

We live in southeast Nebraska to give you an idea about our climate.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Christy