Our story so far: Long baths taught us water was an expensive commodity in the community where we purchased an old Methodist church to convert into our home.

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Modern homes—at least the ones on the grid—require a plethora of utility services, and our church was no exception.

We acquired accounts for natural gas and electric immediately; the church was already hooked up and the service providers only needed to know whom to bill. So lights were as easy as the flip of a switch. Then we pursued heat. Three days after we closed, an HVAC guy turned on the gas, checked for leaks and tweaked out both forced-air furnaces to make sure they worked properly. Cost: $170, a fraction of what we might have paid if there were issues. The furnaces were housed in the basement, which was sometimes wet, and we feared the furnaces might be toast (or perhaps oatmeal is a better metaphor here). But glory be, they worked.

Next up: Wireless internet. The church might have been built in the 19^th century, but we were living in the 21^st, and we needed technology. The internet provider required the church to have a business contract (which was more costly) because when we signed up, we were still zoned as a church; we would have to change that later. Tyler installed not one but two wifi-connected thermostats (because two furnaces require two thermostats).

Not long after, an unseasonable cold spell hit the southwestern Wisconsin landscape (and the rest of the Midwest), but between the body heat we generated by hard work and the furnaces, we didn’t shiver inside our new home.

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Tomorrow: Getting the water hooked up is another story. Read it here.