The former second-floor laundry area, complete with hand pump connected to the ajibe (dry well).
Even though I now have a washer at the little house in Sunflower Valley, we opted to keep our laundry room in La Yacata with some improvements, that is. I never minded hand washing and having a wash area is a good thing in the event of a variety of end of the world scenarios. I wouldn’t want my family to be dirty and ragged now, would I?
We picked up a larger lavadera (washboard) when we picked up the toilet and sink. I wanted one where the water from the hand pump would be on one side instead of the barrica (barrel) so that’s what we got.
It was heavy and cumbersome to take upstairs. The base that held the former washboard had to be altered to accommodate the new one. My husband wanted to have it flush against the wall which required removing part of the washboard. As we no longer had our power inverter to run the power tools, he tried using a hammer and chisel on it. Well, it cracked. After looking at it for about 10 minutes, he decided the only thing to do was to take it to the little house in Sunflower Valley, which has electricity and finish the job.
That meant carting it back downstairs, loading it onto the truck, driving to Sunflower Valley and using the power tool to cut that stubborn piece off. Then we had to bring it back, haul it up the stairs again and reposition the monster. A little bit of jiggling and a little more hammer and chiseling and it fell perfectly into position.
I also wanted a backsplash because I do tend to throw the suds around when I wash. So using the leftover of tile, that’s what my husband did. He also painted a stripe. He really likes painting stripes. One time, I remember coming home from work in Virginia and found he had painted a green stripe all around the living room. When I asked him why he had done that, he said he was bored. This time I at least got to pick the color of the stripe.
The last bit was installing the double-sided mirror in the space that used to be a window. The whole concept just seemed confusing to my son, but the end result is more light reflected back into both the laundry room and the main room.
Other room reflection
The laundry room isn’t quite finished. The handpump will be moved downstairs to get water directly from the dry well. We still need to get a faucet and tinaco (water storage container) and then figure out how to get water to the second-floor roof. But that’s a project for another day.
Surviving Mexico 
Looking great! What about the drying area? Are you planning to have a tendedero nearby? I once lived in a big house that was 3 stories tall (crazy, I know), where the laundry area was downstairs and the hanging area was on the third floor terrace. It was quite a workout to haul the laundry upstairs!
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The back porch is just 10 steps away from the laundry area. It’s also getting a make-over in the near future! When we’ve washed at the arroyo, it required a trek down a muddy lane, a ride in the back of the truck down the highway (lost some chonies once) and hauling the heavy wet clothes up to the second floor to hang. So I totally understand the distance remark. Wet clothes are HEAVY!
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