tommyrot has survived the trip to Madison and is now ensconced on my sofa with a beer. We are watching essential episodes of Agents of SHIELD while we wait for pizza to be delivered.

You just have to remember to keep your e911 address updated. I don't even have the Vonage router hooked up anymore, even though I still have the service. I can use the Extensions app on my cell phone to do everything I want, including to show the call is from my "house" number. It costs me $35 a month and I can call Europe for free. It's completely worth it to me.

I like this all very much. Is this all Vonage?

I have a weird investment in this phone line because it's been the house phone line for my whole life

My sister and I felt that way about the phone number at the old farmhouse. So to sort-of keep it, I started using it as a password on certain sites. When I told her, she said she'd done the same thing.

I have a weird investment in this phone line because it's been the house phone line for my whole life

You can port the number, to a cell phone, Vonage, or Google Voice. No need to lose the number.

Suzi, the inventory might not be great now, but we're starting the spring/summer buying season. The next few months are the best months to buy because people don't want to move in the dead of winter and potentially pull their kids out of school in the middle of the year. Right now is not forever.

I like this all very much. Is this all Vonage?

Yep. Another thing about it that I forgot to mention is that there's network forwarding. If internet or power go out, you can have your home phone calls routed to your cell. That's what I'm doing now. It's seamless.

If you want to sign up, let me know. We both can get a bonus if I refer you.

So to sort-of keep it, I started using it as a password on certain sites. When I told her, she said she'd done the same thing.

Sounds like a completely different situation, Zen. The farmhouse is no longer yours, right? But I still live here.

Eh, we'll figure it out.

You can port the number, to a cell phone, Vonage, or Google Voice. No need to lose the number.

That's his plan, Maria. I think he wants to make the phone line more useful, not less.

I don't recommend doing it if you live in the boonies. One of the houses I looked at was on 2 acres of land in the mountains. It was gorgeous, but no cell service, either on T-Mobile or Verizon, which meant I was going to have to get a landline for home/work.

Even my parents have gone to VoIP via VerizonFIOS, and we have a Vonage line at the shop so he can call Italy and France anytime he wants. The newest plan now gives you 250 minutes for foreign cell phones and keeps the unlimited for "landlines" (which include VoIP lines). We were even able to remove long-distance from the pizza shop and restaurant lines because of the Vonage line, and it's saved the business a TON of money.

My father also now has an iPhone. I don't know what this brave new world is.

Maria, I'm seriously considering it. I could save quite a bit of money over my landline. I'm not seeing a downside; all I want is for my phone to work and to be able to call 911 if I need to. Does it work at all if you travel out of the country?

Also, Daylight Savings Time is causing fun scheduling problems for us globally

Our Japan team has been complaining about the time change for two weeks now, but we are ignoring them because our weekly call is already 7-8pm and nobody is willing to make it any later.

I had Vonage when they were brand new, and the service was awful (calls were unintelligable and dropped constantly), and when I tried to cancel it was hands-down the worst customer service experience of my life. (Short version is that getting through to a cancellation agent was next to impossible and every time I did manage it, they HUNG UP ON ME before I could actually cancel. They played this game for long enough that my free promotional month ran out and they charged me for the next month's service, and THEN finally allowed me to cancel. I reported their shenanigans to the BBB but never got my money back.)

Anyway, I've heard from many reliable sources that they've fixed the call quality problems, but that bridge is burned forever for me.

I think when DH finally upgrades his phone, his old cell will become our house phone, if only to have ONE number people can call when they're trying to get ahold of the household and not one of us specifically. And eventually the kids will need a number to give their friends.

Does it work at all if you travel out of the country?

If you carry the Vonage adaptor/router with you and plug it into to wifi, yes. If you're trying to use it via your cell phone, yes, but make sure you're hooked up to wifi. If you're not you'll pay the normal outrageous data roaming fees. The Extensions app won't work with data speeds less than 3G.

Jess, I initially had issues too, with quality and customer service. It's been a while since I've had any problems though. I wouldn't give them gold stars for customer service, but they do what I need when I need it. I may not be as picky as I used to. Now CenturyLink? I can't decide if they or Comcase should die a fiery death.