Its an antique!

We got my “new” piano yesterday.  The ladies in the church who gave it to me told me it was old and didn’t hold tune, but it was pretty like an antique.  We got it home and yes its got that old piano sound, but I’ve definitely heard worse, and a couple things about it caught my eye, so I did some looking.  Well I found it and here it is.  http://www.vintagepianoshop.com/detail.cfm?id=63

I emailed them and asked how to ID it, and they pretty much confirmed it.  Here’s what they say:

Cindy,
Thank you for your inquiry.  Let me start by saying that Concord built
exceptional pianos!  We have restored several antique Concord upright and
grand pianos, and they are consistently some of the most well built pianos
we see come through our shop.  Concord pianos were built by the famous
George P. Bent Piano Company, and they built high quality, expensive pianos
from 1900-1929, going out of business with the Great Depression.  We have
seen some vintage catalogs showing these pianos selling for as much as
several hundred dollars at the turn of the century area…the cost of a
small house!  It has been our experience that these pianos were usually made
of beautiful woodgrain. These pianos are truly stunning after restoration.
Restored, these pianos are superior to most new similarly priced new pianos
in playability.

If you look at the soundboard in your piano, you will see that the grain in
the wood is very close together.  When that tree was growing 200 years ago,
America’s forests were very dense and trees had to struggle to grow.  As a
result, the wood rings are very close together due to slower growth.  This
wood with tight rings is more resonate and has much better tone quality than
new pianos.  Unfortunately, most of this quality wood is gone forever.  New
pianos with green wood do not have the same sound because they are not as
deep and resonate in tone quality.  As these pianos are destroyed, this
wonderful wood is lost forever.  Luckily, people are beginning to realize
the quality of these vintage instruments and they are investing in their
restoration and preservation for future generations to enjoy.

I can’t afford to have it completely restored, they quoted around $6,000, but its still neat to have a piece like this, maybe someday, its still not much more than buying a good new piano, and then Maggie would have something really nice.

Birthdays

Happy Birthday Mike and Adrianne!  Oh and did I mention I became an Aunt this weekend?  Mike’s sister Meghan had her baby boy Kyle on Saturday night, 6lbs 7oz, I think thats right about what Maggie was too if I remember right (bad mom of me to forget).  Congratulations!  Send pictures!

rearranging the house

Hooray! Mike said I can have the piano.  We are going to rearrange half the house to do it, but I think it will look nice.  We needed to get the ceiling fixed in that back room anyways.

calling all decorators?

Well I have been offered a free piano.  Really cool, but those of you who have seen my tiny little house know, where would I put it?  Only place I can think of is if Mike got a different computer desk and we put it where the arm chair is.   Don’t want to put it in Gil’s room cause of the dust, can’t put it where the blue couch is cause the AC would drip on it.  Maybe in our bedroom but it would block the only window.  Any suggestions?  I would hate to say no.

9-11

I’m not into sappy poems or graphic pictures, and I have no interest in seeing the movies they were so quick to make, but here are the things that I remember most clearly working near Philadelphia that day.  The sound of the woman’s voice when she called to cancel her appointment because her son was in the tower and all I could say was I’m so sorry,  the veterinary colleague living in north Jersey who called to say “you’ll never believe it they are so short on Drs they have me working on humans”, and the complete stillness as I drove home early from work-no planes, no traffic, no one at the mall, just silence.