soulflour

I'm 34 and I grew up in houses only heated by woodburners, and our last house in the UK had only a woodburner too, which meant that our 4 year old and 18 month old had also experienced the 'putting on another jumper' method of keeping warm!

I know lots of other people who live/lived like this in the UK - and love it too!

The Weezer

Excellent points.
I think people have very different ideas on what they mean by
"quality of life" or "lifestyle."
I think for some people with children, making do on less, especially
when higher education needs to be saved for, is not worth the compromises.
Depends on what your priorities are. It's hard to be specific on a forum,
but it helps sometimes to clarify these things.

Lenmil

I grew up in a house with a coal fire. In winter the windows of my bedroom would freez up with ice on the inside. I do miss the heat from the living room fire but not the cold in the rest of the house. Central heating has spoiled us all who have it. While i was in Christchurch i actually enjoyed chopping firewood the old fashioned way. Untill the rain came and all the wood was damp and hard to light. We had stacks of it in the garage too but it was cheap pine and did not last long. It was cut offs from the building trade. Gum tree is the best i think (may be wrong)
Remember going on walks and picking up pine cones to use as fire lighters. They work great by the way. A nice kiwi told us about that. Most Kiwis we talked to were nice and friendly, but not all. Just remember people are people. As a whole in Canturbury people were great, much more friendly than in the UK.