When I was first homesteading - water, no matter how much effort, was first. Then power. Water, well I have some springs and some jugs - long walk, but you learn to get by on what you can easily carry. Funny how little you use when it doesn't just fly out of a tap at a twist and you know you gotta go get it.
It's good habits too. I use a 1 gal jug in the kitchen, lasts about a week making tea and cooking. Takes 1.6 gal to flush the john once a day - that can be anything wet, doesn't have to be drinking grade - I get more than enough collecting rain for that, and for my weekly bath which takes another ~4 gal. Sounds pretty primitive, but seems perfectly normal after awhile, and now I'm free of that ridiculous "need" most have for 30-40 gal a day per person, even though I now have that most of the time.
20 gal a week can handle most truly important things.
If I were the type that sweats a lot (I'm not) well, there's always the river.
Power worked out similarly. At first, a couple big car batteries (charged off the car, nasty-inefficient) and some mods on the really crucial stuff - a couple lights, and a boom box to run right off the batteries. And then onward and upward with the solar, a real generator,, inverters, and very efficient appliances, to the point that the other day, the car charged up quick - then I had a ton of spare power to run A/C all afternoon. Looks like happening today, too. Pretty cool to have your own "gas pump" that says "$0/45 miles" on it.
Once you get up to "I can charge a car" levels - the home is an afterthought. Even my milling machines or welders pale by comparison - they're not taking a 2 ton brick and throwing it up a hill for miles on end, after all. And you kind of turn them off a lot to set up the next job anyway.
I've noticed something about the universe here, Derek brings it up nicely.
If there's a problem with you = you're heading toward a cliff - the universe will somehow start telling you about it - gently at first, like his power outage, which was probably more annoying than a true emergency. Then harder and harder - sometimes painful warnings, before you go over the cliff.
It's seemed to me that a large part of the "trick" is seeing the early, less painful warnings for what they are, and taking action before the universe smacks you upside the head hard to get your attention, since you weren't paying any until it got "loud".
There's going to be waves, the trick is learning how to surf, rather than getting pounded into the beach - you can warn and whine about the waves all you want - they don't care.