One of the first friends I made here in Gladlyville is moving away, and she is selling a baby grand piano. A piano I can open up to let the music wash over me is pretty high on my list of "Things I Might Like To Own Someday," and tonight I went over to her house to check out her piano.
First I had a conversation with Elwood. "How implausible is this idea?" I asked him. "Fairly implausible," he said. Our house is under 1800 square feet, and we already own a piano. We have a little music room, emphasis on the little, but acquiring this piano would mean a fair amount of rearranging.
We both laughed at the preposterousness of shoehorning a baby grand piano into our little house, but we also both like the idea of buying this piano. I suggested a new home for our upright piano, and he said, "Hey! That could work!" He emailed the friend in question while I went over to check out the piano.
It is not beautiful. It is an old instrument; its keys have yellowed and its frame is a little battered. But I sat down and played the beginning of my favorite Schumann piece, and the sound came pouring out and the world felt a little brighter. "I'd love for it to go to a good home," my friend said. Because it is not beautiful, and because she is selling her house in less than three weeks, it is far less expensive than I imagined a baby grand piano would be.
So these are the things that would have to happen: (1) find a new home for our upright piano (2) find a new home for the loveseat that currently occupies one wall of the music room (3) find a new home for the living room furniture most likely to be displaced by the loveseat (4) figure out piano moving for both the upright and the baby grand (5) call the tuner. Elwood says we also need to (6) buy more games, because if I'm going to squeeze more musical instruments into our small house then he would like to squeeze in more games.
"I mean," says Joe, "if we have space for a grand piano we probably have space for another bookshelf too."
"It's a baby grand," I told him.
"Well, a baby tiger is still a tiger," he reminded me.
Apparently the Beethoven Foundation will come and get your piano for free if they like it enough! (To be fair, you would also be getting no direct money for it, just a receipt for tax-deduction purposes, but hey.)
Posted by: Kellie | November 28, 2021 at 06:47 AM
(The upright piano, that is, in this case.)
Posted by: Kellie | November 28, 2021 at 06:47 AM
I had a friend in elementary school that had a baby grand in a small house. It was in their dining room because what other room is designed for something that size? And I tell you what, it worked. I hope you can make this work for your family!
Posted by: mary d | November 29, 2021 at 07:45 AM