This will require a bit of explanation… where to start? Most Americans don’t have a situation like we do in this old adobe, that’s for sure.
The photo below shows a corner of our kitchen: the thing with the chile lights on it (the only photo I have at the moment) is the water heater, with the sink to the right. Barely visible to the left of the water heater is an old washing machine. Yes, this cobbled-together kitchen has a funky old gas hot water heater right out in the open. The drain hose from the washing machine goes into the sink whenever we do laundry… I assume you’re rolling your eyes already, but I’m not done… there isn’t any way to fasten the hose to the edge of the sink, so what I’ve been doing for five years is a) hook the u-shaped end of the hose over the sink, b) weight it down with the heavy lid from a large cast-iron frying pan, and c) use the pan itself to hold down a large plastic souvenir placemat that covers the rest of the sink, so the splatter is controlled. Got that?
There are all kinds of ways for this to turn into a catastrophe, but the method actually works fine, so long as one remembers to put the hose in the sink, etc. etc. etc. The last time that didn’t work out so well for me, it took about three hours to get the kitchen back into shape, including the time it took to mop up a LOT of water. Well, this evening my wife forgot. We heard the unmistakable sound of something Very Wrong going on from an adjacent room and rushed into the kitchen almost in the nick of time. There weren’t more than a few gallons of water on the concrete floor, but the gushing graywater had extinguished the hot water heater, so I had to put that right.
This required moving the washing machine (which I’d never done), reading the very scary directions, squirming down amongst the cobwebs between the sink and washing machine to uncover the access to the burner, and playing with matches. I’ve done this before with other water heaters, so it wasn’t all that big a deal, although my wife was properly chastened by the whole experience.
You may also be wondering why she was doing laundry at night, since anybody with a crazy washing machine setup like this surely doesn’t have a dryer. Well, we don’t, but it snowed all day today, so I had the woodstove going in the next room. (Ah, spring…) The laundry goes on wooden racks by the fire, and there you have it. That’s where my underwear and socks are right now, and the kitchen floor is almost dry, too.
Still want to come to Taos and live in a romantic old house made of mud? 
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes, I do. Many people, in all of 2012 reality, could be without electricity soon, so washing machines and water heaters??? –a thing of the past, perhaps, and you will be cozy in your mud house…much cozier than those in stick houses and glass houses.
Celebrate your life!
Well, it is cozy. And I do share your intimations about the future. Always have actually. For decades!
I wonder if you’ve ever read any of my stories about my 16 x 8 foot shack in the Ozarks from my woods hippie days in Arkansas (‘71!)… no electricity or running water, but profoundly reassuring: shelter and warmth, nothing to break, the universal dilemma of taking care of one’s physical body on the planet RESOLVED… I need to revisit this state of being. It was very good for me. I also cooked no meat and ate no sugar then. My teeth were strong and gleaming, my stomach was firm and tight, I bounded up the “hollers” like a deer.
Personally, I’d like to celebrate my life in somewhat altered home quite similar to this, only with more attention paid to solar gain and garden possibilities. Hmm…
J&K,
We used to have a similar set up at the Still Pond house only it was a rollable washing machine in the way back bathroom in the corner of the house. Hose in from the water source, hose out into the vanity sink. You couldn’t hear it overflowing. How many times did the cry originate from somewhere in the house “OH SHIT! I forgot the washing machine!” and a mad dash was made through the house to that corner. Well, at least the tile floor got washed fairly regularly.
Yay, the Eastern Shore is in the house!
Thanks for dropping by. You know, I never knew that about your Still Pond abode — and am I the only one to notice that “adobe” and “abode” are so similar??
OT, but I feel very good this morning. I think something important is surfacing. And how are you and Jeff?
I’ll bet she doesn’t forget to do the hoses ever again. And now the floor behind the washer is nice and clean so all is well.
I’ve “forgotten” twice. Actually, the first time I used the washer, I didn’t know the hose had to be secured: I just hooked it over the edge of the sink, but the water pressure made it jump right out! When I ran into the kitchen, the hose was dancing all around like a vomiting python.
The second time I screwed up, it was actually because something had slipped down inside the sink and blocked the drain, so that the water just poured out of the sink….uh, massively. That was actually worse.