A Belated Birthday and Early Christmas Present

Finally! I finally got my parlor grand and couldn't be more excited. After searching for almost a year and a half, I found what I was looking for and the price was just right. I stumbled on this 5'8", 1921 piano in the online edition of The Statesman classifieds. I did a reverse lookup on the contact number to see exactly where the piano was located and was surprised to find it not more that five miles away.

I told Dave about it- not expecting much- but he agreed to go and take a look that afternoon. The lady who was selling it was once a piano teacher and due to the size of her livingroom which was rather small, a kitchen in the middle of being updated, and her husbands recent stroke, bought a clavanova and officially listed her grand.

The room was dark, even with the lights on and the draperies pulled open, but I was able to get a good look at everything. The soundboard and cabinet was covered in dust and household grime but was in overall excellent condition, only suffering the bumps and bruises that come with age and various moves. The key tops had been replaced and I was given a copy of the technicians' receipt from January when it was last tuned. It played well and I liked the mellow tone it produced.

We left and went to dinner, all the while mulling it over in my head. Dave said that since I was the one looking, I knew what about it would be worth and what else was out there for the same asking price. This was above the mark and he gave me the okay with the stipulation that I could no longer bring up the fact that he missed two of my birthdays (completely forgetting one altogether) and our last anniversary, This makes up for all of that, and Christmas too."

I arranged to have it delivered the following Tuesday, after waiting until Monday to haggle the price and buy it. Once it was home, I started to clean it up using a method I found online for bringing back antique finishes. Apparently Dawn dish washing liquid is good for a lot of things. I buffed the brass, dusted the soundboard, washed the cabinet with Dawn and applied two coats of Old English for dark wood. (Hid all the little nicks like a charm.) I need to work on it some more before its completely clean. I even padded and reupholstered the bench.

The following week my old 1869 Hackley upright was sold and moved to its new home. A Christmas present for a 10 year old girl in Boise, I could not have let it go to a better place.