26 May 2010

We are renting the second and third floors of a three-story house.  The house is one room wide, and the second floor, starting from the street, has four rooms in a row: a small living room, two bedrooms, and a kitchen/entrance way.  On the third floor there is a large living room, one bedroom, and the kitchen/entrance way.  The third floor had two bathrooms (who knows why) and we needed a place for our washing machine, so the landlord agreed to modify the bathroom in the kitchen area, changing it to a laundry room.
	This bathroom measures less than five feet wide by seven feet long.  Previously it contained a toilet that the landlord removed for us.  There was never a sink in the room (!) although you can see the bidet hose is still on the wall.  The shower is just mounted on the wall and previously sprayed water over the whole room. Now the drain hose for the washer discharges water over the floor so the soap and other materials are set on small green plastic stools which are a standard part of Cambodian bathrooms.
	The last step was to mount a 220v to 110v stepdown transformer because the Japanese washing machine is 110v in this 220v country.  (All the labels are in Japanese and we had to get a neighbor to translate them for us when we first got the washer.)  These two young men worked about an hour, added a new hose fitting to the washer, mounted the transformer, and it cost $8.00.