Is the goal, here, to move out before the end of the lease?
Quote Quoting HaLo2FrEeEk
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It's an efficiency apartment in the basement of my girlfriend's co-workers house. Prior to us living there the space was used as an office/work space for a dog grooming business (there is a very small bedroom, bathroom, shower and another room kept constantly locked because they're growing marijuana in it, supposedly legally.)
You may check with local housing officials to see if the basement apartment is a legal residential apartment. If it's not a legal apartment, and the issues that prevent it from being a legal residential rental unit cannot be corrected, that will be a basis to escape the lease.
Quote Quoting HaLo2FrEeEk
They did not provide us with a copy of the lease agreement, although we asked, and my understanding is that any part of a lease that violates tenant law is unenforceable.
That is not correct, although some violations may render a lease unenforceable. It is not a violation of landlord-tenant law for a rental unit to be shared by more than one tenant, or for there to be common areas to which a landlord will continue to have access, so if it's what you agreed to when you signed the lease you cannot expect that you're agreement that the landlord would continue to (legally) grow marijuana in one room of the unit, and would enter and exit as necessary to maintain the plants (or, it would seem, to wash his dogs), would be improper. If they're using the provision to go into a private bedroom or to surprise you in the shower, that's quite another matter. If you don't believe that the marijuna operation is legal, you can report your landlord to the police, but if you're right you can expect to be looking for a new place to stay, and if you're wrong your relaitonship with your landlord is likely to worsen.

If you agreed to allow the landlord to wash his dogs in the unit, but aren't comfortable being around the dog when it is being washed, you would have the option of going into your private bedroom and closing the door or, as you did, going to another location such as the yard while the dog is being washed. I don't know the layout of the unit, so it's not immediately clear to me why you would still have a dog washing station in the living room area, but if that's the way the unit is set up, it would have been quite predictable that the landlord would be using that station to washing his dog as you agreed when you rented the unit.
Quote Quoting HaLo2FrEeEk
The "landlord" isn't exactly the nicest of people, and our ceiling/their floor is extremely thin, so every small noise from the main house is heard in our living area, yet we're expected to stay extremely quiet. We constantly hear him shouting and swearing at his young (10 or 11 year old) son and his two large dogs sound like elephants walking around above us.
One of the issues in living in a rental property, particularly an older building or home that's been converted into multiple units, is noise from neighboring units. People who cannot tolerate the noise should consider making sure that the unit is sufficiently soundproof before they rent, or renting a single family home.

Also,
Quote Quoting RCW 59.18.065. Landlord—Copy of written rental agreement to tenant.
When there is a written rental agreement for the premises, the landlord shall provide an executed copy to each tenant who signs the rental agreement. The tenant may request one free replacement copy during the tenancy.