Monday, February 14, 2005
The Piano
Donna rescued it from an antique dealer. She frequented the store, which was in the basement of a lamp outlet in Bucks County. She could hardly recognize it as a piano because of all the items for sale being featured on its top. she asked if it was for sale and found that it was. It was used by the ladies children to learn piano in their home. It had sun damage on the top case where it was placed near a window. It had cracked ivories on the keyboard, but it was a Steinway baby grand in a walnut finish! Donna told her she was interested and hurried back home to tell of her find.
She excitedly told me, and when I was excited about it, she called her mother, who immediately offered to help pay for her getting it. This was a wise move on her part. She had invested in Donna's lessons, bought her first piano, and now was investing in her instrument for the next several years. We got the money and purchased the piano. Now we had to hire piano movers to bring it into our house.
The day came for the piano to arrive. they took off the legs and put it on its spine. it was moved on a dolly, which had wide oval-shaped wheels. they dug into the floor and I fixed those ruts later with an iron and a damp cloth.
But we had our piano, no matter what we owed Donna's mother. It sounded beautiful. To feel the keys of a Steinway and the action was divine. It needed work, lots of work. we did it in stages. first we tuned it and the tuner gave us some equipment to get the rust off the strings and to clean the soundboard. Later we had the whole action taken out and rebuilt. That cost a lot but it was worth it to get the keys from sticking.
Donna gave lessons on that piano and I played it for pleasure on other times. I replaced some of the badly chipped ivories with ones that I got off an old piano. I learned to play many Bach preludes and Scott Joplin rags on that piano but most of the time I just improvised. Eventually I would finish a session by playing some Welsh hymns.
We had the piano appraised and found that it was built in 1952 and was called an "S" model. In 1987 it was valued at 18,000.00. In 2005 we found from an appraiser that it was worth between 36 and 48,000. The ivories were cracked, but working. The piano has a warm tone and when the lid is propped open it fills the house with its sounds.
On Valentine's Day, 2005 I came home to find Donna hysterical. She would not tell me what happenned, so I had to look for myself. I saw a large wet spot on the sheet-rocked ceiling and terrible water damage to the piano. I saw felts that came off the dampers because of the water. Her metronome she had since she was a teen was warped and fallen apart. I didn't know what to do. The remodeling of the bathroom above the piano had taken much too long and the workers that installed the bath hardward did a poor job of soldering the pipe joints; the one going to the shower head gave way and spurted water while Damon was happily washing. The water dripped through the drywall and landed right on the top of the piano, then slowly dripped into the action, soundboard, and strings.
In the ensuing days, we called Home Depot and they came out to see for themselves the damage that was done. We had a Steinway restorer come out to see the damage and he said the strings, dampers, part of the action, damper pedal felts, all had to be replaced. the soundboard would have to be repaired as well. he would have to refinish the entire piano case. To do all this it would take two months and moving the piano to his shop. He would loan us a piano in the meantime. All this would cost over 14,000. Home Depot did not flinch at the price because they are making the construction company pay for it.
Menwhile, we can't play the piano and the house feels empty without the sound it made. I only hope the restorers can do magic and bring it back from destruction.
She excitedly told me, and when I was excited about it, she called her mother, who immediately offered to help pay for her getting it. This was a wise move on her part. She had invested in Donna's lessons, bought her first piano, and now was investing in her instrument for the next several years. We got the money and purchased the piano. Now we had to hire piano movers to bring it into our house.
The day came for the piano to arrive. they took off the legs and put it on its spine. it was moved on a dolly, which had wide oval-shaped wheels. they dug into the floor and I fixed those ruts later with an iron and a damp cloth.
But we had our piano, no matter what we owed Donna's mother. It sounded beautiful. To feel the keys of a Steinway and the action was divine. It needed work, lots of work. we did it in stages. first we tuned it and the tuner gave us some equipment to get the rust off the strings and to clean the soundboard. Later we had the whole action taken out and rebuilt. That cost a lot but it was worth it to get the keys from sticking.
Donna gave lessons on that piano and I played it for pleasure on other times. I replaced some of the badly chipped ivories with ones that I got off an old piano. I learned to play many Bach preludes and Scott Joplin rags on that piano but most of the time I just improvised. Eventually I would finish a session by playing some Welsh hymns.
We had the piano appraised and found that it was built in 1952 and was called an "S" model. In 1987 it was valued at 18,000.00. In 2005 we found from an appraiser that it was worth between 36 and 48,000. The ivories were cracked, but working. The piano has a warm tone and when the lid is propped open it fills the house with its sounds.
On Valentine's Day, 2005 I came home to find Donna hysterical. She would not tell me what happenned, so I had to look for myself. I saw a large wet spot on the sheet-rocked ceiling and terrible water damage to the piano. I saw felts that came off the dampers because of the water. Her metronome she had since she was a teen was warped and fallen apart. I didn't know what to do. The remodeling of the bathroom above the piano had taken much too long and the workers that installed the bath hardward did a poor job of soldering the pipe joints; the one going to the shower head gave way and spurted water while Damon was happily washing. The water dripped through the drywall and landed right on the top of the piano, then slowly dripped into the action, soundboard, and strings.
In the ensuing days, we called Home Depot and they came out to see for themselves the damage that was done. We had a Steinway restorer come out to see the damage and he said the strings, dampers, part of the action, damper pedal felts, all had to be replaced. the soundboard would have to be repaired as well. he would have to refinish the entire piano case. To do all this it would take two months and moving the piano to his shop. He would loan us a piano in the meantime. All this would cost over 14,000. Home Depot did not flinch at the price because they are making the construction company pay for it.
Menwhile, we can't play the piano and the house feels empty without the sound it made. I only hope the restorers can do magic and bring it back from destruction.
