Wood Burning Fireplace/Bake Oven?

Greetings, all!

We recently acquired our "dream" - let's hope it does not become our nightmare! We now own about 10 heavily wooded acres atop a mountain, so, we have plenty of building materials, but we do not want to cut down a lot of our trees. We want to build an earth-friendly structure on the cheap ($$ is scarce after buying the land). We read the UH Book some time ago, and have been looking at all options. Also, just read about the wofati; have looked at straw bale, cobb, etc.

One question I have though: is it "safe" to build a wood-burning fireplace in an UH or wafati? What about a straw bale? Cobb? I'd also like it to include a bake oven as part of the fp., as I grind grain and make all of our baked goods. Any specific thoughts or ideas we should research relative to the various type structures we're considering?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated, as we are just getting into this project and have much to learn.

Cob is a very safe high-mass wall to use as a backstop to a stove or fireplace. That is usually used around the stove/fp in strawbale house.

I prefer a wood cookstove over a fireplace as a single piece in a cabin, mostly personal preference based on bad FP experiences. But if you know what you are doing, nothing lifts the spirit as quickly as a good fireplace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m7W8yBUIHY&feature=plcp This video is about a reenactor building a period kitchen, but it may give you good ideas for baking w/ a FP. They also have a couple good videos on cob ovens. And are just fun to watch.

Yes, it is safe, but let me add this caveat...any heating element can be unsafe is done or used improperly. I know of people that had these types of stoves in city apartments, so location is less important than using wisdom. If you get stuck let me know and I will try to help!