The four of us filled a 26' truck--with plenty that didn't fit, a bunch in storage, and a ton back at Mom's house.
Most of that is Mom's and my wife and I have moved much more of Mom's stuff than Mom has, but Mom has done much more than she did last time.
She also said that she got dizzy walking to the car to get boxes.
My wife is doing everything she can, but she is still recovering from surgery.
They removed 2" of skin and didn't sew her up, saying she needs to heal from the infection first.
However, they made it sound like they won't sew her up when she overcomes the infection, she needs to regrow 2" of skin!
She sees the surgeon again tomorrow and I am hoping he gives her a note excusing her from much more work.
I will be using a great deal of those student loans, but she needs to heal!
People from Church helped us move, but we didn't get a hold of anyone in our new congregation, so I paid professionals $750, and we are doing the normal routine of figuring out the new home, where all of our stuff is, etc.
I let my brother pick his room and laid down after a long day, but Mom said the garage door was broken.
Her garage door is broken at her house.
Our garage door is broken at our old house.
What is wrong with the garage door in our new house?!
The opener doesn't work, but I can still open and close it manually.
Then Mom made a big deal out of she and my brother sleeping in the living room.
She demanded he switched rooms with her, so I had him help me move their furniture.
I made his bed and tried to get him to lie down to ensure everything is comfortable, but he immediately left the room, and refused to return.
One of the conditions of renting the house is leaving custom bunk beds in one room, but neither of them will sleep on it.
I set up my brother's bed in the living room, but he refused to make it, or tell me where he was sleeping that night.
Mom demanded that I check the water heater and I said "I can't, there are four feet of junk piled in front of it."
Well, that was the worst possible response, so I had my brother help me move four feet of junk.
The water heater is gas.
On Wednesday, the landlady gave us some numbers to call to set up utilities, and I wondered if I needed to set up gas, but I was so preoccupied with packing that I didn't see if I needed to connect the gas.
They won't connect it until Wednesday.
We don't have hot water for three days.
There is a garden in the backyard, including this 55-gallon drum, which is full of water:
I don't have any idea what the previous tenant did with it, there isn't a spigot near the bottom like with the one that I left in Show Low, and I haven't seen a pump.
The cheapest one that I found locally is $65, doesn't fit a standard hose, and this isn't necessarily in direct sunlight, but this small backyard has two palms and at least a few trees.
The palms aren't tall, but the trunk is spiky and super wide.
The backyard doesn't get much direct sunlight, which actually seems pretty nice.
There is a nice and big covered patio, too, which we are enjoying.
Mom wants her picnic table there.
I just need to tighten all of the fasteners again!
...and move it from Gilbert.
I was thinking of something like this:
I couldn't find anything to suspend the solar shower 8' above the ground and based on my experience, that is far too little!
I found places selling popup tents like that for $60-80, but I couldn't find a battery-operated pump, just a hand-pump one, but I thought that I could hang it high enough.
I thought wrong--mostly.
Why put shower outside when inside do trick?
A smoke detector chirped and we have vaulted ceilings, so I spent $100 on a telescoping ladder to replace a $5 9-volt battery.
Lowe's has a longer one on-sale for $90, but it isn't sold in-store, as far as I can tell, and it wouldn't arrive until after we have hot water.
Annoyingly, stores no longer seem to advertise how tall ladders are, but how high you could reach if you stood on one.
My wife suggested putting the feet in the tub, which works, it is just at a greater angle than I would like, thus lower.
My $100 8.5-foot ladder kind of worked, but I needed to crouch on the shower floor to get under the water.
The top of the ladder is about 8' high, and when I attached the 2' hose and the showerhead, it was only about 3' from the floor!
I would have cut 1" off the hose and attached the showerhead directly to the bag, but I just used the spigot directly.
I wish that I could have suspended the solar heater at least 9' from the floor.
The water didn't come out very fast or warm, but I didn't get them until 4pm, and didn't have the time to shower until 9pm, so it would have been warmer.
It sure was a pain to bring a half-full cheap Walmart garbage can into the bathroom.
I should have brought the water in with buckets.
Then I couldn't find anything to wear but my Mario costume! ��
Edit!
I hoped that the water would be warmer the second night since I put it out in the morning--and I hoped to use it when the sun was going down, but family...
I hauled my brother's bath water in using a 3-gallon bucket.
It had a nice handle, I just wish that I had a 5-gallon version, it took a ton of trips!
I could have brought in the garbage can sooner.
The water was nice and warm, but when I went to hang up the bag, the hook broke.
I got another and it broke, too!
I removed the cargo strap from my wardrobe box.
Sure, you aren't supposed to use the top step.
In fact, you are specifically prohibited from it, but I didn't realize that the top rung isn't load-bearing.
It bent disturbingly under the weight, so I wished that I had a 2x4 to zip-tie to it, which would have given me another 1.5".
However, I was able to pull the handle over the top, so the spigot was at least 5.5' high, and I could have had it a bit higher, so it was all right.