freebeard-inspired hitch-mounted cargo outhouse

[freebeard]

The green house could be retractable. But a teardropped reverse trike would be preferable

[Xist]

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.

[Piotrsko]

Obviously orange or blue store know people will buy the cheapest thing. If you need to reach 8 ft you can buy either an 8 ft ladder or a 6 ft and stretch. Suprise the 6ft one is $30 cheaper step ladder.

[Xist]

I guess that it depends on whether you want to hang it from something or set it on a shelf.

I am sure there are far more places to hang something, compared to setting, but if you have a camper, you can set it on top.

I found this for $38:

https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/it...E-NDkQDCw4I0Yg

Or you could add a spigot to a $5 black bucket.

I am sure that people would prefer to roll up a solar shower when not in use, but if you allow this to dry after use, you can store your sleeping bag and stuff inside.

[Piotrsko]

Metal buckets work better. The baggie showers heat faster, but tend to have surprise leaks just when you ant to use them

[freebeard]

White or translucent bucket painted with

https://www.smithsonianmag.com › smart-news › artists-can-now-get-their-hands-worlds-blackest-paint-180964512
Artists Can Now Buy One of the World's Blackest Blacks
Singularity Black is a dark paint created by NanoLab under contract with NASA, which can make even the most textured surfaces appear flat. It is not as dark as Vantablack, but it is available for all artists to purchase and use, unlike the exclusive Vantablack.

What about the topic?

Originally Posted by OP

I have spent enough on rentals to buy an old truck, van, box truck, etc., and when I mentioned this to my wife, she asked if we could convert it into a camper afterward.

edit:
For a metal bucket: duckduckgo.com/?q=ash+bucket&ia=web Comes with a bail, lid and about 5 gallon capacity.

[Xist]

It is 110°.

We were supposed to do our second load last night, but Mom suddenly felt horribly dizzy, and by the time she felt better, we decided to wait until the morning.
I wanted to be loading the truck by 05, but I woke up my brother, and asked him to get dressed and help us after 07.

I just needed to use the convenient Uhaul app, which required an inconvenient 50-minute phone call, and then we didn't have much time before the follow-up appointment to my wife's recent emergency surgery.

I took my brother to get breakfast, picked up my wife, drove back to the house, and we spent another 2 hours and 20 minutes loading a 15-foot truck, which was as much stuff as my sister drove to to Oregon.

We have more stuff than my sister did.

We still have two refrigerators and this case I bought for all of the toys that my brother bought just since we moved:


There are other things that would have fit on the truck, but we need a 15' truck for the refrigerators.

We need to fix the garage door, our bedroom door, and I hope that is all!

Mow and trim the lawn, trim the weeds...

We need to have the carpet cleaned professionally!

Got to go!

[JSH]

I will be using a great deal of those student loans, but she needs to heal!

I hope you aren't talking about using student loans to pay medical bills because that is a really bad idea.

1. Student loans in general cannot be discharged even in bankruptcy - they follow you for life. Medical debt can be discharged in bankruptcy

2. Your student loans are at what - 8% interest? Medical debt you can negotiate a discount and then set up a payment plan. Generally that payment plan has little or no interest as long as you are making payments.

[freebeard]

Waiting for a Thanks from OP.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by JSH

I hope you aren't talking about using student loans to pay medical bills because that is a really bad idea.

1. Student loans in general cannot be discharged even in bankruptcy - they follow you for life. Medical debt can be discharged in bankruptcy

2. Your student loans are at what - 8% interest? Medical debt you can negotiate a discount and then set up a payment plan. Generally that payment plan has little or no interest as long as you are making payments.

Please tell me how much her surgery cost me and how much money I have left from student loans!

Thanks!

We finally finished moving yesterday, which was great because we were contractually obligated to leave by 1700 Sunday.

The slide bolt that goes from our bedroom door into the frame came out when we first moved in and I held onto it, but couldn't find it, so I found another one, which was a different color, and had square edges, not rounded ones.

I bought a chisel set and chiseled the corners to make the new one fit when I found the original in the laundry room!

I replaced the original and put some filler in the corners.

There were patches in many doors and I accidentally bumped a patch in Mom's door with a cardboard box and busted it, so I thought I should spray some Great Stuff in there to make it "Solid."

For anyone wondering how much spray insulation to put in a hollow-core door, perhaps trying to create sound insulation, the correct answer isn't "Until it starts to leak out."

Yes, you can scrape off the excess when it dries or wipe it immediately, but:


The back bulged, too.

I bought a replacement door and tried to find the kit to attach hinges, but couldn't find them, the app wasn't working, and I couldn't find an employee before I got distracted, checked out, and drove back.

I tried calling a carpenter at Church, but I couldn't track him down.
I called a friend who identifies as the "Most masculine person [I] know," but she didn't answer.

I looked it up and saw that I needed a kit and a router.
For some reason, I thought that I needed a plunge router, which is $60 more--and it doesn't plunge deep enough.

The kit is pretty thick.

I traced it, but it was a different shape than the hinge, so I removed half of one, traced that, and tried to follow it my first time using a router.

My cutouts were more like half-moons than rounded rectangles, I needed to go back for the corners, and just made it worse, but at least the hinge seemed to work.

I think the trick is to tape the hinge before you remove it from the door so you know where it lines up with the new door.

I don't know what I did wrong, but the door didn't close, and it was already after midnight.

Right.

It was unpainted.

I grabbed a $6 can of spray paint hoping that it would look decent.

Not only did it not look decent, but it ran out before I finished the first side.

Maybe it would have looked adequate with 2-3 coats, but it would have needed 2-3 per coat, so 4-9 costing $24-54!

Whatever, there was paint in the garage, so I told my wife that I was taking it to get mixed... and returned with slurpees.

I started to leave again, she asked if they were still open, and no, no hardware store in the area is open past 8 on Sunday, but Walmart was!

Except the only people authorized to push the buttons left at 5, so I bought a paint mixer... and the paint was dried out, so I ran back for a can of door and trim paint... which was black, so I exchanged it and had the cashier verify that it was white.

I had bought a 2" brush and then used it when the spray paint was a little thick. I didn't want to make a second trip just because the paint dried and made the brush unusable, so I bought a 3" brush, but the original worked, so I spent 50% longer than reasonable painting it.

I really should have bought a roller and roller accessories, forget that noise!

By the way, how much does a replacement hollow-core door cost anyway? It is just a bit of wood, pressboard, and cardboard.

$78!

Plus $30 for the kit, $160 for the router, $6 for the spray paint, $5 for the mixer, and $20 for the paint.

All for a door that didn't close!

The new door was 1" longer than the old one, so maybe it needed the hinge side shaved and re-slotted.

I don't know, but it was officially the day after we were contractually obligated to leave, so I reinstalled the original door, and loaded up the van.

Somehow after filling at 26' truck, a 15' truck twice, and Camries a couple of times, we still needed to fill a cargo van.

My wife hopped out to ground-guide me with the 26-foot truck, suggested that I checked how much room I had, and in one motion I jumped out, locked the truck, closed the door, and marveled at my stupidity.

Good news!

I have a locksmith on speed dial!

Ninety-five dollars later we were on our way.

People from Church loaded that truck, but my wife had reached out to the new congregation, but nobody responded, my sister and her family only help when we pay them (and still complain), and I don't have any friends, so I paid movers $750 to unload.

I figured that since people from Church loaded the first truck, it would be unreasonable to ask for seconds, but I tried to hire movers to unload the second.

The first guys didn't respond.
I reached out to others, but didn't hear back before Mom, who had stayed inside all day, demanded that I stopped being lazy [recovering from unloading a truck when it was over 110°].

Then I laid down for hours.

At one point, I napped on the carpet, but I think that was a separate occasion.

We thought that we had most of the stuff out of the house for the third load, we thought we just had Mom's plants and cleaning supplies, but I had the stack of 2x6es from Show Low, which I need to post on Facebook.

I moved the first one and a scorpion stung me.

I don't recommend that.

We had some ice packs in the freezer and I held onto one for several hours.

In the morning, I was able to function, but that was several hours later.

Meanwhile, I secured the garage and truck with one hand and a great deal of pain and drove back.

Before we returned to get everything, I stopped at Winco for leather gloves.

I don't know what happened that day, but we didn't leave until it was late.

I had loaded my huge refrigerator by myself and my wife moved all of Mom's refrigerated and frozen food into ice chests, but then it sat in the truck all day.

I tried to find someone to finish loading the truck, drive it, and unload, but the best that I found were two guys who were much bigger and stronger than me.

They transported Mom's huge fridge with a full freezer and her dresser for $170.

I moved two dressers by myself.

The thing is that you are supposed to unplug a refrigerator for 24 hours before moving and keep it unplugged for 24 hours afterwards.

Hopefully hers is fine because they loaded it into a trailer, which was definitely easier than loading it into a moving truck, and part of the reason I had them move it was because I would have needed to remove everything from the truck except my fridge [with one hand] in order to put another refrigerator in there.

How was my good hand supposed to solo that?!

They wouldn't have needed to tip the fridge nearly as much as I did to get it up the ramp and then maneuver it around the door, so hopefully it didn't need to settle as long.

I just didn't feel up to plugging in Mom's fridge or emptying the ice chests, so that food was ruined, too.

The guys from Church packed the tools I planned on using to fix the garage door (and pieces that attach Mom's refrigerator handles), so I paid a professional $367.

I hired ZeroRez to clean the carpets, although they couldn't get out a couple of wear stains from the year we lived there.