Every time I get a new tent (which has been too often for a retiree budget!), it spends some time first pitched in my living room and then pitched in my back yard.

Actually, the back yard is a great place to test new gear--if it doesn't work, you have a nice warm bed to which you can bail out. Of course, that nice warm bed is awfully tempting even if the gear works fine!

That looks like an electric or gas fireplace--if so, you can't practice lighting fires with wet wood. Which might be just as well, considering the smoke involved when burning wet fuel!