You might want to look into the propane. Maybe it's different there than here, but we had propane installed here so we could have a gas stove and dryer, and it's really pretty reasonable. It beats the hell out of oil heat, that's for sure. I think it's pretty comparable to natural gas when it comes to heating cost, around here, which is about the same as an all electric heatpump, in my experience. Worth checking into, anyway. The other thing is there are a lot of incentives for energy-saving things: if you found a really good deal on a house that had propane, you could deal with it for a while, and as soon as possible you could install an energy-efficient heating system (this house has geothermal) you get all kinds of tax writeoffs and discounts.