Why I think my in-laws are awesome! : Three months to launch

I have the best in-laws!! I have known this for some time. The first part of our being “houseless” adventure just reinforced how awesome my in-laws are. Why? Because we ended up at their house with our RV for three months and they didn’t complain once.

I have so many friends and other family who have difficulty with their in-laws. I can not relate at all to them because from the beginning when I first meet them, my in-laws have been amazing. They are generous, kind, fun-loving explorers who are devoted to God and their family. I have seen them bend over backwards over and over again for weeks at a time to help out a family member or friend or just a person in need. They truly try to be like Jesus. Their a great example to me over the years is one of the reasons that we realized Devotion is one of the important parts of living a Deliberate Life.

We sold our condo in March and moved into our RV which had been parked at my in-laws house all winter. Our intention was to get a few projects done and then be on the road by early May at the latest. Moving into the RV on the side of my in-laws house really meant living with my in-laws, because we had no water in the RV at the time. My father-in-law is a former mechanic and hardware store owner, so his garage is like his own private hardware store and mechanic shop. He has tons of tools and other items that make working on our RV much easier. I tease him about all the stuff he keeps but the reality is that a lot of that stuff was very valuable to us as we worked on projects. It saved us a lot of time and money because we didn’t have to run to the hardware store and buy something, he already had it.

We brought down some of the storage shelving we had in our storage unit at our condo and set up some shelves in one corner of the massive garage. We placed all of our stuff that was to go into the RV on those shelves. Over the next few weeks, I got us moved into the RV and completed a very long list of projects that would make life on the road more pleasant. Mike was working a lot because he was still in his busy time as an accountant. I worked until April 9th, but in the evenings after work, we would both work on the RV.

My mother-in-law had broken her leg about one month before we came to their house and she was unable to put weight on it when we arrived. My father-in-law was doing all the meal preparation and taking care of her. So, I became the meal preparer for all of us while we were with them. That was one way I could give back to them for their huge generosity in opening their home to us. This wasn’t the first time they had done that. I lived in their home for four months while working in St. George a few years earlier. And I have seen them open their home to many members of the family over the years I have known them.

We completed a very long list of projects. I did a lot of projects I never thought I would do. For example, I installed a backup camera in Beauty (our jeep) and a water heater bypass valve on the RV water heater. We installed more solar on Beast and Mike built a lithium battery to hold all that great power generated from the sun. We had some mishaps with the battery though.

Mike got it all built and we were excited because we were on schedule for “launching” right after Mother’s Day. Then shortly after completing the battery, Mike was working on it and did something that totally shorted out the battery monitoring system (BMS). It was useless. Mike had to order another one from the manufacturer in Australia. In the meantime, he put our old batteries back in and we went camping with Mike’s parents and their friends to Kaibab National Forest. It was glorious to be out camping in our rig, however, it was not without its problems.

Just before we left for the Kaibab, I noticed that the toilet in the RV was smelling. It appeared to be leaking. I figured I just needed to tighten the C clamp that held the bowl to the base of the toilet because that had been a problem before. So we headed up to the Kaibab. Upon further investigation after we arrived, we discovered that the ring which holds the toilet to the floor of the RV had broken and it was only being held by two bolts on one side and nothing on the other side. It actually moved rather freely. So we had black water (nasty) leaking out around the base of the toilet. No wonder it smelled bad. Luckily we caught it fairly early. But this meant we were camping without a toilet in our rig. In fact, we totally removed the toilet to let the area dry out and so I could clean it good to get rid of the smell.

Another reason my in-laws are awesome is that they said, “just use our toilet”. No big deal to them. They were just fine with us traipsing in at all hours of the day and night. However, I would have felt bad waking them, so I dug a hole and put up my tent I use when we are Jeep camping. It worked great, although a bit chilly in the morning.

When we got back to their house a week later, we looked first at installing a composting toilet. I really want one of those, but they are quite expensive and they were going to take up to 16 weeks to get to us. So we looked at other solutions. Our toilet in our 20+ year old rig had four screws which held the toilet to the floor. All new toilets have only two screws so they are just like a residential toilet in that way. So we decided that we would need to order a new toilet and new toilet would mean that we needed to install a new mounting ring that had only two screws. At the local hardware store, Buck’s Ace in St. George, Utah, (great hardware store) we found a ring which could be installed on what was left of the old ring and would convert it to a two hole connection. So we were on the search locally for a replacement toilet that would work. It had to be a low-profile (it is on a step up) and we wanted porcelain to replace the porcelain one we had. We couldn’t find one locally so we had to order one from Amazon. It was 9-13 weeks for delivery. So we would have to launch later than we had planned and be at my in-laws house even longer. But they didn’t complain one single bit.

The toilet arrived sooner than predicted, but when Mike opened the box, the new porcelain toilet was a casualty of shipping–it had shattered. Amazon did not have anymore, so we decided to downgrade to a plastic toilet that had great ratings and ordered it again. It arrived less than a week later. And we got it installed.

By this time, we had been at my in-laws for about three months when we only intended to stay for a couple of months. My mother-in-law was to the point that she could be on her feet a lot more and begin doing some of the cooking. So, it had been a good time for us to be there was that I could help out with the cooking and other things when they needed help, but I completely recognize how hard it is to have house guest for that long of a period of time. We once had a house guest for three weeks and for me that was too long. I can’t imagine how much it must have gotten on their nerves. But, true to form, they did not complain or make us feel unwelcome at all.

Apparently they were not too sick of us after that because we went camping together twice after that and they invited us to go on an Alaskan cruise with them. But those stories will come later.

I’ll say it again, my in-laws are awesome. They will do anything for anyone. They are generous. They are kind. They stay out of our lives appropriately, but are also in our lives appropriately. They have figured out the right balance of those two things. We have fun with them and enjoy traveling with them. They are easy-going and flexible. But most importantly they are true disciples of Christ. Loving those around them and serving where they can help. I call them mom and dad because from day one, they have treated me as their daughter and loved me just as they do their children. I love them too.

One of the 4 Ds is Devotion–Devotion to what matters to you. We matter to them. My in-laws are devoted to God and their family above all else. They have set a great example to me of what it means to live a life filled with Devotion. Thanks mom and dad!!

Exploring a glacier in Alaska with my amazing in-laws.