Strongly Considering the Ideal Steel - Input Appreciated!

Jealous about your tour to Woodstock - thanks for the pics.

I agree with TurboDiesel that awesome looking doorknob wood(pun intended) be a cool design to incorporate into your stove.

 

Woodstock is truly an amazing company! Wouldn't it be nice if all companies had a similar business model and philosophy - friendly, attentive, never pushy, informative, will work with any customer/potential customer in the most helpful ways (even if you/they aren't sure if you're going to end up buying their product), seeks to educate looking for nothing in return, take the time to make sure which product of theirs is the right one for your particular set of circumstances, asks for and takes feedback and input from customers, and, of course, makes great products! I don't want to bash any other companies, but in this process of looking to upsize and upgrade my stove, I've dealt with a few dealers of other wood stoves (because I can't go directly to those stove companies), and my experience with them has been: less than informed, less than helpful, impatient, more concerned with the sale than with showing a true interest in what I'm trying to achieve, and as my situation isn't a totally straight forward one not wanting to take the time to work with me to figure it out... Go Woodstock!

 

Deposit down on an IDEAL STEEL!!!! Woooo hoooo! Thank you so much to all the good folk here for your warm welcome to the forum and for all your input, as well as all the amazing things I have learned from the many threads I've read (and am still working my way through!). I'm sure I will continue to have lots of questions and will definitely be posting pics when we get there!

Kenny

 

I would have to completely agree. The first time I called Woodstock was to purchase another product. I spoke to Penny. They accommodated my special shipping needs with the product very well. We also talked stoves as I was just starting to think of putting another stove in place.
Second time I talked to Lorain (sp?) about stoves. She answered all my questions and never pressed for an order. I was trying to decide between AS and IS.
Third time a man answered the phone. I told him that I had spoken to Lorain. He put her right on the phone no waiting at all. I ordered an IS and scheduled delivery for May 25. Can't wait. Still vacillating a little between AS and IS. I'll have to make a decision in the next couple of days to get the sale price probably.
I may change the andiron design and am sure it will not be a problem.
Kudos to Woodstock.

 

What colors and features did you get?

 

I also was one of those many call for questions customers. I was calling Woodstock andHearth stone. That level of customer service and knowledge sold me. It of course helped I was reading FHC that had at least 3 beta testers.

 

I've got a little bit of time to figure this out, but likely the charcoal base with copper side panels and door accents. While we are going to look some more at the possibilities, so far these are the colors that my wife liked (to my surprise), and I also like them (I think they'll work with my mantel and hearth - see pic in my avatar - thoughts?). Actually, my wife really liked the black and copper we saw in some pictures best, but the folks at Woodstock said the charcoal is a bit more forgiving when the stove gets ash/dust on it, as dust shows a lot more on the black. I am custom designing some artwork and will post once it all looks like it is good to go!

Marshel54, great to hear you have a stove lined up! What are you thinking for colors and design/artwork? In regards to final decision of the IS vs. AS, I bet if you call them they will give you a little more time to decide, as long as you have a down payment in and talk with them about it. As they make every stove to order, I think they will probably let you decide right up until they start production on yours. Lorin is a manager there. I think she'd be the person to talk with about this (though perhaps others too).

 

I got the charcoal with metallic blue accents. Wolf and Cabin (ANM024) design. Will probably see if I can sub the trout andirons and the Labrador Retriever center burner.

 

Truth be told, while we were working on designs, avatar picture on the side and the top pieces. My wife sent a scanned sketch as well as a few pictures of ou first three dogs. Then phone calls and many, many e-mails going back and forth:
How does this look?
Can you tweak this little feature more like ___?
How about this now, we have limitations for retaining the structural integrity yada yada.
Well I would really like to see ___.

Back and forth - back and forth so much so that I was trying to smooth things out because my fear of asking for too much too many times; every time they would send us a mock up of the design I would tell my wife "that looks great, they really nailed it!" But of course my wife needed this or that changed and more back and forth.

Point being, I was worried that someone would lose their patience - that never happened. Just another testimony to Woodstock's unbelievable, high-level of Customer Service.

 

BeantownBurner nice to hear you decided on your stove and made the downpayment.
Marshel54 congrats to you also.

I'm sure they will make every accommodation possible to ensure 2 more happy customers.
I'm sure you will both be happy with the stoves once you have them installed and burning.

Now it's time to get the wood.

stumplifter do you remember how much extra for the customized artwork??

One of the many things that I like about these stoves is that if your tastes change, you can order new artwork and install it on the stove at home. So you're really not limited to the initial choice at purchase if you later decide "it just doesn't work".

Heck, if I wanted to, I could order a new front door and side panels in a different color, change out the burner plates and have an entirely different stove.

Looking forward to seeing the new stoves installed guys.

 

Chaz - no I don't recall what the extra cost was. Money matters a lot to us, but our purchase of this woodstove was an investment in a quality product that should last decades and hence we justified splurging on it. (Read: happy wife)

 

Chaz, not sure what it would cost to order new side and burner artwork, but at the time of purchase, it's (currently) an extra $195 maximum for custom artwork. I believe if it's a real simple design they may end up charging less, and I believe you can choose from any prior art/designs they've already created and thus have the template for without any extra charge. As stumplifter pointed out, there can be a fair amount of back and forth with the custom artwork as they want to make sure they get it all right, so the $195 max strikes me as pretty reasonable. They told me they have an artist who does all the custom designs, with whom they said I'd be communicating a lot.

 

Thx guys,
Not necessarily saying that I'm looking to change up my stove setup, but it's nice to know the option is there if I so desired.

stumplifter I agree on the investment point of view. I think I mentioned somewhere that I'd have a hard time spending $2K on a new fuel oil furnace, but spending $2600 on the IS didn't phase me at all. I too look at it as an investment, one that is paying dividends every year.

 

Oh, yeah! Working on this one! Just ordered a Fiskars Iso Core 8lb. Maul after reading a lot of good things about it on this site! I've got about 2.5 to 3 cords of split dry wood, another cord of almost dry splits, and a whole bunch of rounds to get into as I start to work towards my 3 year plan a la Backwoods Savage's Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage