A Piano?!!

While Ben was gone, I was busy refurbishing an upright piano for him.
I bought it at a thrift store for $100. All of the keys worked, and nothing was broken, exactly, but it had quite a few sticky keys, no key tops left, and about 40 years worth of dust everywhere. there were, in fact, areas on the inside which I thought had been painted black all through the vacuuming and first and second washings-out. The third time over, I discovered... beautiful wood under all the grime, not black paint. Yuk!
With the help of directions from the Internet, my dust mask, vacuum and Murphy's oil soap, I cleaned, filled holes, turned pins, filed felt, glued on new key tops and shined it up over the course of about 25 hours or so last week. (By the way, you, too can be a piano technician. Steve will help you at: www.stevespianoservice.com)
It is a gorgeous piece of furniture, but more importantly, a lovely instrument. There are still a few sticky keys to adjust and tuning to have done, but it's well on its way.
Ben was... "flabbergasted," when he walked in Monday evening, which was, of course, the idea. It's not so easy to surprise him, but he really loves a good one, so this was pretty fun to pull off. A big thanks to the RA guys who lugged the piano out of the store, into a truck, up our front stairs and into the living room. It was quite a job, and a substantial part of the gift! Maybe we can get a pic on here at some point. It is a walnut color, with thick pillars on each corner and under the keyboard. There are neat little sliding doors above and under the keyboard exposing the working parts of the soundboard (I don't know what that is called-- the area where the hammers hit the wires).
Ben had fun revisiting some pieces he used to enjoy playing, and is excited to get back into it. The piano will also be nice to use for some class times and Christmas parties and all of that!