The Panda Bear on Zen, Her Bathroom Repair and the Cleanathon

The Panda Bear is in her third day of paid leave from work.   She has gotten to understand how people who are not employed still say they are very busy.   The Panda Bear feels she has been somewhat hard on Mr. Panda.   He has about three times as much vacation time as the Panda Bear.    The Panda Bear at times will ask him what he has done with his week off and he will say he did not do too much.   The Panda Bear will not understand how he got so little done with so much "free" time.  The Panda Bear now feels it is harder to organize  oneself without a schedule.

When she was younger and had more free time, the Panda Bear did not understand the concept of Zen or doing nothing.   Wouldn't people rather be doing something?   Now after having been constantly busy she has come to appreciate it.   The concept of Zen is came from a busy culture.   A week of having nothing to do would seem like a totally mind altering experience to the Panda Bear right now.

Now here comes the part of the Panda Bear Blog that many readers have been waiting to hear; the Panda Bear will describe how her bathroom repair went last year.

The Panda Bear went to the website Home Advisor Inc, and asked for contractors for remolding the bathroom.   Mr, Panda interviewed the recommended contractors(because he has more time off).  He found one that he liked.  He made sure the contractor had worker's comp and general liability insurance.   We explained to him we did not want a full remodeling just a repair of what was broken.

This contractor very generously offered to go to Home Depot to pick out the material.   The Panda Bear and Mr. Panda don't drive so it is hard get to the store and pick out materials   Furthermore,  the Panda Bear felt she had no idea what to pick.    She explained to the contractor that she liked her old bathroom- it just needed to be fixed.   The contractor picked out the materials and warranted them for year.  He charged for his time and a mark edup on the price.  

The bathroom repair was quick and efficient.   In addition, they had some blinds replaced and some other small repairs.  The Panda Bear can say she is glad the apartment was fixed but she can't say it was an elevating and inspiring experience.   She feels she has acquired new skills but would rather the bathrooms did not break down.

For her next home project the Panda Bear has resolved to do a Cleanathon.   This is where the Panda Bear does a massive cleaning and decluttering so she can hire a professional cleaner to do the heavy cleaning.   Her goal is to hire a cleaner by this spring.  

She also needs to buy some new bureaus or have them repaired.   The Panda Bear finds it very frustrating that all the furniture stores -even in Boston proper where there are many people live in small houses and apartments-seem to have furniture for the McMansion.   The Panda Bear can't figure why since she things there would be a market for it in urban areas it is so hard to find furniture for smaller places.