The Pink Palace: a palatial size, and palatial amount of work!

Yesterday marked three weeks since we moved to Cambodia. We found the Pink Palace the day after our arrival (see 17 reasons… for more details). It really was a fixer upper, more so than we let on (or even knew at first). But we were looking at the potential, and the sheer funkiness of it, and couldn’t pass it up.
It was dirty with many repairs needed. There was no stove, a semi-working fridge that later broke, we needed of shelving, furniture, a washing machine, and on and on… All of the delivery/technical/repair/construction etc people seems to be boys under the age of 15. This might be a slight decrease in their actual age, but only slight cause they all seem really young. There were usually at least 2 of them per required repair/delivery. None spoke English, so we’d inevitably end up in 3-way conversations (4 way if you count all of the emphatic gesticulations with our hands and limbs) with either our landlords, their boss or the actual repair person, or some random English/Khmer speaker they’d found translating via mobile phone. As you can imagine, this makes everything take extra time.
I’ve never taken care of an entire house, and have a new-found respect for those who do. It’s very dusty here, and there are still leftover monsoon thunderstorms with sudden downpours that flood the streets. This adds to the upkeep tremendously. That, and a 70 pound German Shepherd who is shedding like a maniac.
All in all, it feels like a full time job setting up a home here, getting it functional and maintaining it. The good news is that in less than 3 weeks, we have a really cool, comfortable place – a kick-ass pad, with lots of play space and room for you!