Запечье is a room between a stove and a wall. It used for storing yield stuff which is supposed to be keep in warm dry place. What about 'уступы и выступы'... Your translation seems to be quite accurate, according to my humble knowledge of English at least =) Уступ is a wider (on about a half of a brick width) part of stove wall at the its base. I'm not sure about 'Выступы' meaning but, to my mind, it's ledge sticking out which used for placing a meal on it before getting in stove. Also it can be bricks sticking out and serving as steps helping people climbing on a stove (In Russia stoves were used as beds especially in cold seasons) Here you can find stove drawing with its structure (unfortunately only in Russian) http://remont.townevolution.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000002/st063.shtml

Because it's short and very good quality writing. Both important things to me when I have to re-read a lot. I also read lots of news articles to practice, but I like the quality of the writing so much that I think it is worth the archaic words which I'm seeing. I don't normally read intensively looking up every word, but with this text I am doing it. So far I am finding it very rewarding and also learning unexpected things about Russian and Ukrainian history in the process.

Why did you choose 'Taras Bulba' ? Nowadays books of Russian classical writers turn out to contain many word which are difficult for understanding even for native Russian youngsters.