My 400 Pound Prize...

I've been casually looking for an antique upright piano for about the past year now...I had a very specific look in mind but could never seem to find one that really caught my eye. One of my girlfriends even tried to get me to take her old piano for free but it didn't have the look I wanted so I passed...on a FREE piano. This past Saturday while hitting an estate sale I saw this little beauty in the corner of the garage, The sign said "Antique Mahogany Piano - make an offer". I strolled over and hit a few keys...it sounded good but looking at the condition of it I knew they probably wanted more than I was willing to spend.

After looking through the house at all the other treasures we had to head back out through the garage and as I strolled past the pretty piano I played a few more keys...I just thought it was so pretty. We headed to the car but I couldn't leave...I got one of Tom's business cards and headed back up to the garage with the intention of telling the woman to call me if they didn't get any offers. Instead I asked her if she could tell me about the piano...turns out she and her brother were selling off their parents' estate, she was quite elderly and told me that she used to play the piano as a kid and it originally belonged to her Grandfather, who passed it down to her parents when they got married. She let me know that the keys are "real" ivory...not the fake plastic 'ivory' that you see on most pianos...the bench is the one thing that shows it's age, most likely from all the use the piano got. She was sure she pointed out the fact that two of the keys stick and one of the pedals stick but as I heard the stories and looked at all the fine details I started to fall in love. I finally got brave enough to bring up the price...I had a number in my head but don't know how much mahagony pianos from the ?30's? run. I told her I didn't want to insult her by making an uneducated offer so asked her what she was hoping to get...her price was HALF of what I had in mind so I waved Tom back up to the house to let him know that we now had to figure out a way to haul a 400 pound piano half way across town!
I don't know the first thing about playing the piano but everyday I have to walk over at least once to pretend like I know what I'm doing...she's just so pretty isn't she...and she's all mine!
(ok...and Sebastian's)

Maybe Thursday I'll have time to post pictures of all my other treasures from this weekend's junking trip...but this is the best find!