squatty potty laundry room

Almost every home here has a squatty potty bathroom. We have one right off our entry, but we also have 2 western toilets (BIG smile). Because we have a bathroom off our hallway and an itty bitty bathroom off our bedroom, we took the advice of some other foreigners and made our squatty potty bathroom into our laundry room. Otherwise, our washer and dryer would've been in our main bathroom.

Doing this feat required fine electrical skills provided by our American friend several blocks away. Since there are no electrical outlets in the squatty potty bathroom, he made the light fixture serve as the electrical base. Somehow he rigged up the electrical flow through the light fixture.

So we have a power strip dangling behind the washer and dryer, and that's where we plug everything in. It all worked so well for several months. Then, Mike changed the lightbulb. Tragic mistake! Things started to get interesting.

We've had to try various things to get our washing machine, dryer, and light fixture all to function at the same time, but it's quite tricky. We never know what mood they're going to be in, so we have tried a variety of things. The light fixture went out all together a few months ago, and it refuses to give us light. We continue to do laundry in the dark because we can't figure this one out, but we have managed to try a variety of things to get clean clothes...

• The washing machine and dryer typically don't like each other. If they're both on at the same time, they'll flip the breaker so nothing works. So, we only run one machine at a time.
  
• The washing machine and dryer's relationship has so deteriorated that not only do they not want to work at the same time, but they don't even want to be plugged in together. Now we have to unplug the washing machine if we want the dryer to cooperate (and vice versa).
• The washing machine and dryer like the dark. They will not allow the light fixture to work, and sometimes they will not allow the entry hallway light to be on. Sometimes we have to turn off the entry light if we want clean clothes.
• The washing machine is picky about its water. Sometimes it won't add water to the wash unless you manually reach your hand behind the washer and turn the water knob.

Has anyone seen The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars? The cute little toaster goes to Mars where he meets the angry appliances. The evil Wonderluxe appliances devise a plan to blow up earth, led by the Supreme Commander who is a huge refrigerator. My washing machine could've easily been cast as Supreme Commander, with the dryer as his top aid.

I've included some pictures of our electrical wiring and our washer and dryer. Sorry the pictures are so dark...the appliances like the dark and refuse to allow the light fixture to work. I had to use a flashlight to get some sort of light, thus the spotlight.