I've played on and off (I wasn't much for doing anything boring like practicing) since second grade. I enjoy playing now, and have wanted my own piano for a long time. Sadly, pianos are incredibly expensive! Just about anything that can be purchased for the same price as a small car is ridiculous.
The piano we found was very old. What attracted us to it was the price: $50. It belonged to a family that was moving out of a rental one hour away from us and didn't have room for it anymore. We called and told them we wanted it and were on our way. As fast as we could, we hooked the trailer up to the truck and took off. There was a decent drive ahead of us with no guarantee it would still be there when we arrived.
Just as we feared, we got a call when we were twenty minutes away. Several people had called with better offers. My husband was very firm with the sellers and told them we were almost there, we had the cash ready and we WANTED it. They were hesitant, but agreed to still let us have it for $50 if we hurried.
A few hours later we were on our way home with our new piano in tow! I was so excited I could hardly wait to play it. I kept turning around to make sure it was still there. This may seem silly, but when we got home and unloaded it we realized that somewhere along the way it hadn't been tied down correctly. If it hadn't been so heavy it could have fallen out! Can you imagine a piano smashing to pieces on the freeway? We're convinced it was a miracle that it didn't.
Now came the difficult part: getting it into the house. It had wheels, but they were so old they didn't turn. My father-in-law came over to help us but the three of us still struggled to make it move. Once inside, we were horrified to find that the piano was so heavy, it was leaving deep tread marks in the floor. We quickly put towels underneath it to fix the problem.
It has to live in the kitchen because extreme temperatures are no bueno for pianos. Having it in the same room as our fireplace wouldn't work. Doesn't everyone want a piano in their kitchen?
Once it was in place, I was finally able to play it. It sounded...okay. It was out of tune and the sustaining pedal didn't work. It couldn't be pushed down at all! Few things are more annoying than playing the piano pedal-less.
After I got my fill of playing it, my next task was to find out how old it was. I searched the piano inside and out for clues and this is what I found:
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| I'm pretty sure this is the serial number. |
Next was to get the pedal to work again. It seemed jammed so I again spent hours trying to fix it with my bare hands and a flashlight. It wasn't easy! I can only tolerate so much of reaching into a dark dusty piano to troubleshoot. Maybe I'm crazy, but there's something about dark spaces that makes me want to say "walk away, Lori, walk away..."
Finally I did what I should have done in the first place: went crying to Jonathan. He took one look at it, knocked a small chunk of wood out of the inside (beneath the inside part of the pedal) and it worked. I hate these situations. I'm so relieved that the pedal is working but embarrassed that it was so easy. Ah well. And he wonders why I ask him to do everything for me.
At last the piano was playable. I have since taught piano lessons and enjoyed countless hours of playing. Alas, with young kids I don't get a lot of time to play. Whenever I get a chance to sneak away to play for a minute I always get caught. The problem with a piano is that by playing it you give away your position and turn into a sitting duck to a little girl begging "please come play with me!"
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