Setting up Household

It's a blur at this point, but during our first few days here, we delved into our nest egg to set up a basic household. We'd kept all our kitchen tools (tossed a lot of pots and pans and almost all our dishes), kept our beds (except our box springs and body pillows), kept the kids' TV and the living room TV and all our computers (but donated the bedroom TV), kept the dining room table (but donated the chairs)... you get the idea. We had less than half a household when we arrived. The only things we had to sit on were camp chairs, which proved too low for dining at the table (insert image of us hunkered around the table at eye-level with the surface).

On Friday, we got up early while it was cool outside and finished unpacking the trailer. After showers, we headed down the highway* with the kids and picked up new body pillows, four ceramic bowls, ice cube trays, trash cans, etc. We also looked for fly strips but there were none to be had. (Flies had swarmed in while the landlord had painted and while we moved all our stuff indoors.) While we were running errands either Thursday or Friday, we stopped by the local internet company and grabbed a business card. When we got home, I called to arrange service but they couldn't meet until Monday at 2pm. We spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking. That night, we headed into town to Big Lots to pick up a set of dishes, a set of glasses, a sweeper, some taller folding chairs, a basic TV stand, and light bulbs.

Early Saturday, though after coffee, the inlaw and his dad (who actually owns the house) stopped by with a whole set of new deadbolts and doorknobs, all keyed alike. The inlaw brought a spare phone book for us! The dad also walked with us around the property and showed us the sprinkler system for the plants, the shut-off for the water main, etc. After they left, the Babaloo and I installed the new locks. Well, the Babaloo did. Mostly I just held the doors in place while he installed them, and handed him the hardware as needed.

I unpacked a little more and --surprise!-- found two packs of fly strips which I promptly hung. I think in two days, one strip alone caught 37 flies.

Later that day**, we headed back down the highway, still staying in the valley, and stopped by a used furniture shop. The owners, Gary and Janet, are really nice and welcomed us to the area. We snagged four nightstands: one for each of the kids and one for each of us. Now we had a place to store our socks and skivvies! It's nice not living exclusively out of a suitcase.

I only washed the living room curtains completely by hand before I had the Babaloo drill holes in one of our many five-gallon buckets so I could hand-wash a few small loads of clothing in the garden tub. One of many tutorials. The collapsing, wooden drying rack came in quite handy.

We also discovered reddish sugar-ants entering the kitchen window, and the younger kid ran into the living room mid-day to exclaim that they were coming through her baseboard and had gotten all over her computer. (The kids had taken plastic container lids and set up their computers sans internet to write and play solitaire or somesuch.) I got down on hands and knees and used a flashlight to find and squish every ant I could find, sprayed the windowsill and baseboard, and banned her from her room for the rest of the day until it could dry and air out.

At 3am Sunday morning, said kid crawled into our bed because ants had crawled into bed with her.

Sunday, the Craigslist man and his wife (who handles the paperwork for her father's properties) stopped by with the lease. By this point, my nerves were greatly settled. Heck, I'd met half the family.*** And I had a lease in hand.  We had a list of about ten items or questions that the Babaloo asked while I read over the agreement, the biggest problem being that the master bath toilet would not flush properly. The Babaloo also thought to ask whether we could have chickens and they very enthusiastically said that's something they support! After we signed, the wife said she'd need to make a copy of the lease to bring back to me, but I just popped it on the printer/scanner/copier and made one for myself, which she appreciated. Then they hauled butt because they had groceries in the car.

Monday morning, after coffee and a shower, the older kid and I headed into town to the Home Depot, where we found door mats, huge, outdoor trash bins, uber bug spray, a yard rake, and a small countertop bin for compost materials. While I was in Home Depot, I missed a local call on my cell and couldn't reach the person when I dialed back. We also stopped by the grocery store. As soon as I stepped into the produce section, the Babaloo called to ask where the power cord was for our router. The internet guy had shown up early, and the internet was already up and running because the previous tenant had never returned the dish. The kid and I looked in both stores for fly swatters, but there were none.

When I got back home around noon, the Babaloo and I hustled to bundle up the trash and make use of the outdoor bins right away. Most of it was packing materials, but the Craigslist man and his wife had not looked at our indoor collection very fondly when we'd seen them the day before. I immediately called the independent trash company in the valley and set up service. The Babaloo had found a larger thrift store in the town the other direction, and we called ahead to ask that they charge my card and let him pick up a couch he'd seen on Craigslist. They were highly agreeable and he hit the road.

About an hour later, the Craigslist man and the inlaw and the dad showed up with new miniblinds and tools to remove and snake the toilet. The inlaw thought I didn't hear him point out the outdoor trash bins to the Craigslist man, but I did. See? They were talking about it. I spent a good portion of their visit taking supplemental tools, ladders, and old rags to one guy or another. When the Babaloo got home with furniture, the dad said, "Your wife is quite handy."

The Babaloo offered to install the miniblinds and the two younger men helped him carry in the couch and recliner he'd found. The couch, itself, has a recliner at each end. It is not as comfy as our old couch was for stretching out to take a nap, but I do appreciate being able to put my feet up.

I think that's enough updating for today. I'll leave off with Monday and start the next post with our search for a washer and dryer on Tuesday.

SO much counter space! SO much storage space!

*I should mention that the inlaw who arrived with none of the right keys told us no one in the valley locks their doors. Arizona is a very gun-owner-friendly state, so I certainly don't intend to walk up to a strange house and let myself in.

**After I could lock my doors, because gun or no gun, I lock my doors.

***For those of you who need visualizations, this may help. Craigslist man is like a slightly younger, shorter, highly energetic, redheaded version of the Babaloo's stepdad. The wife is like a cross between Peg Bundy and Diva Plavalaguna from 'The Fifth Element', in that she's coiffed and frank and very tall with a beautiful voice. The inlaw is much like I'd expect my mom's friend Helen's son would be today, very friendly and chill and totally a west-coast dude with long sun-bleached hair and a ball cap. The dad is retired Navy and a cross between Cotton Hill and Abe Simpson. (Sorry; I never had the benefit of a grandfather, personally, and don't know a lot of older gentlemen so I may be stretching for comparisons, here.)