Piano Man (and women)

Brad and I have both played piano for most of our lives. We agreed ages ago (long before we had children and quite possibly before we were even married) that any children we had would also take piano. We have varying and differing opinions about sports/other extracurriculars, but we agree wholeheartedly on piano lessons. We both recognize the value that learning to read music and play the piano have added to our own lives and really want to ensure that our girls have the same experience.

Brad is, unquestionably, the superior musician, but I very much enjoying playing the piano when I get an opportunity. We've talked for a while now about the possibility of acquiring a piano, knowing that the conditions would have to be just right, given that pianos are, generally, not in the budget of a grad student/stay-at-home-mom combo. So, we looked into keyboards for a while but still really wanted an actual piano.

Being the Craiglisters that we are, Brad decided to put an ad on Craigslist that said something along the lines of "grad school student with young family looking for a piano that someone is trying to off-load to a good home." His wording was classier than that, but that's the gist. And lo and behold, we actually had two people contact us with pianos they were trying to get rid of. We've learned that there are "free' pianos to be had- because of how difficult they are to move (because they are DIFFICULT to move, guys).

The one we really wanted (and ultimately got) was located almost an hour away, which was a little disheartening at first. I'll shorten the saga for you, but Brad ended up having to rustle up about 6 guys + a friend with a truck, rearrange the furniture in our dining room*, buy two furniture dollies, hunt up all of our ratchet straps, watch quite a few youtube videos about moving pianos, and rent a small trailer from U-Haul in order to get the piano. AND WE STILL SPENT LESS THAN $100 FOR A BEAUTIFUL UPRIGHT PIANO. Seriously, we're still in shock a few weeks later. The fella selling it was helping his mother downsize and mentioned that she was emotionally attached to the piano, so we sent him this picture of Claire to show his mom:

Granted, it was realllly out-of-tune (we've already started having the pitch raised and getting it tuned: a cost not included in my previous paragraph), but it's a gorgeous piano that the piano tuner said was "an exceptional deal," given that all of its innards are in great condition. Brad has been playing it the most so far, but we've all (all 4 of us) taken turns. We can't wait until the pitch-raising and tuning is finished so that we don't have to constantly check to make sure we're playing the right notes. It's terribly exciting! Hopefully, we can start teaching Claire some basic basics over the next few months. Wish us luck, folks!

Lily approves, too.

*For anyone who has spent time at our house and is wondering where the piano fits: we turned the dining room table parallel with the windows and moved the china cabinets to flank the windows. The piano is on the opposite wall from the windows/china cabinets. And yes, there is, surprisingly, enough room for everything. We measured many times before pulling the trigger, obviously.