A Piano Makes a Terrible Coffee Table

Its all about having the right piano. Ive been playing since i was 5 and im on my 3rd piano which is a beautiful Estonia grand. I recently traded my young chang in on it for my 50th birthday. While i was sad to see my young chang baby roll out of my house (i had it 30 years), it was costing me money in repairs and still just not right. I hope some cute little person is learning to play on it and loving it as much as i did. Pianos are works of art in more ways than one and ive never walked by one without wanting to play.

We had much the same story. In our case, it was a Steinway inherited from a close friend who played beautifully. I played badly for a while, then gradually stopped. We finally sold the piano for $3000 to pay for surgery for one of our cats. It was a good trade.

So relate to you and your family. I just got rid of an upright Wurlitzer from the 80s that I adopted from a garage sale. Thought I would finally learn to play and took lessons for 4 years. But alas, did not stick with it. Posted it on LetGo for free and after 6 months it was out of my house. Yes felt slightly guilty but no regrets-I checked off the box that said " learn to play the piano" and now my house has so much more space and some young millennial got a free instrument. Finally it did not end up in the trash!

There really is something about a piano. I have a broken Wurlitzer spinet in the garage, 10 feet from a dumpster sitting in the driveway, but I cannot throw it out. It is was damaged beyond repair after five moves and can’t even be played, but how can I throw out something that my grandparents received as a wedding gift in the 1930s? I learned to play on that piano. And it is keeping the broken Kawai electric piano company. That one, so perfect in a couple small rentals we lived in, was broken in another move. We now have a new baby grand in the dining room instead of a table. My daughter plays it every day. I have realized that we should not move again, for the sake of the piano. Maybe that is what is so great about a piano.

I would suggest the writer donate the piano, but no nonprofit would be able to afford to move it, much less maintain it. But perhaps a technician school might be interested?

As the very proud owner of a Steinway , hand painted , parlor grand , made in 1905, I have the fondest memories of my two daughters' lessons . They had two different teachers. & NOW they rarely indulge me with their piano skills !! . In my heart , I know , that they KNOW , they enjoyed an enriching opportunity . So , decades later when you girls ( U KNOW who U ARE !) come home & I ask you to "play the Piano " ---give it a gander & fill the room with with memories of " reaching an octave" recitals , a piano shape cake & pure love ! Nothing quite like it !

My father bought me a 5’9 Kawaii when I was in my late 20s. It was an apology for not buying me a piano when I was a child. At 7 I desperately wanted one and even took lessons without one ! And performed in recitals! —-The longing was terrible and when I finished college I bought my own....and continued to take lessons for years -—Fast forward 30 years. I have moved 5 times and every house had to be right for the piano... finally I decided that I wanted a real room with a sofa etc... it was SO painful. I associated the piano with my Dad and his love. I was losing him soon- he was in his 90s and had severe dementia. Then the real ax fell..... the piano tuner I respected the most, told me the real truth— it never was such a great piano... sigh... —I sold it (lucky) for a good sum to a family with a very big living room.. and bought myself a used, and wonderful (and very good quality!) Yamaha U1. I changed everything around...bought a great sofa for the living room and bought lots of plants (it has great windows).. turned my smallish dining room into an art studio with my perfect piano and a table for drawing.. —I saved lots of pictures of my Dad’s piano and hope he forgives me up there (he has since passed away). but I’m so happy playing the piano - (with his picture sitting on the top) or making art in a room where everything fits.. Merry Christmas to all!

Let me reinforce that not all old pianos are worthless....there are valuable, high quality instruments out there, along with a whole lotta very bad, essentially useless ones. And an electronic keyboard will never replace the real thing for a serious classical student. As for us, a 7 foot Mason and Hamlin BB dominates our room which has been rendered pretty much unusable with the addition of a cello and all its accoutrements. Who needs a formal living room, anyway?

Get rid of the Piano! Don't look back!

Yes, retiring a beloved musical is wrenching, as I learned from experience with my late father. As he neared 90 and was boringly spending hours on the sofa watching TV, he received a surprise gift: an old mechanical-electric living room organ bequeathed to him by a friend’s widow. Never inclined for lessons or practice, he had a gifted ear, able improvise on almost any instrument, even an obsolete organ. With only the slightest prod, he began riffing away at his new toy, producing a rich repertoire, from the rhumbas and cha-cha’s favored at his seniority community to an occasional tune from childhood. Not only could he range in different octaves over the organ’s multiple keyboards; with only a push or pull its banks of buttons, he’d switch for beats, ring bells to amuse a visiting grandchild, or maybe unleash a fanfare for a friend about to tell an old joke. He became his community’s musical maestro; I’m sure the organ added a year or two to his life. Then came the last tune, and it was time to say goodbye to mahogany-cloaked instrument. But what to do with the obsolete contraption? No one would buy it. Worse, it couldn’t be shipped to the dump - its last owner would be from siren-ing from his grave. But unlike so many old instruments, the organ went to a happy repose. My father’s cherished Latina aide brought the pastor of her evangelical church to hear the organ and he fell in love with it. It’s now introducing his sermons and accompanying his congregation’s lively chorus.

I have a Steinway S--a baby grand that I have had since my wife and I got married (32 years ago). It has moved with us all over the country. I play every day and I just don't feel right if I can't put in at least a couple of hours. It has opened up the world of classical music in a way just listening can't. I feel lucky to have it.

When we were finally selling the family house after my mother died, I was tasked with getting rid of the grand piano, originally owned by our musical grandmother who died before we were born. My father had played and we took lessons on it. I didn't have room and my sister had a piano. My sister was very annoyed that I couldn't find anyone to take the piano. The day before we were leaving town and putting the house on the market, the movers came to take what we were keeping. One of the movers admired the piano and said he was the piano mover for the University of Miami's music school, a few blocks away and they were always looking for pianos. I called and offered, the school was happy to accept a grand in good condition and that same mover was back the next day to take it. It was appraised by the school for tax purposes at about $1500 and I was sent a commemorative key chain and several invitations to concerts as a significant donor, of sorts. I was just thrilled to find a happy home for the piano. I did send my sister the later NY Times article documenting how hard it was to get rid of all the family pianos with the accompanying depressing photo of a dump of broken up pianos. Get rid of that piano now!

Old instruments needn’t die. My father wasn’t a trained musician - he never had the patience for study or lessons - but he had a marvelous musical ear and could tap or blow a tune on almost any instrument. As he reached his 90s, a friend’s widow bequeathed him her husband’s beloved semi-mechanical organ. What a joy it turned out to be. Instead of lounging for hours watching TV, he began toying with the instrument’s buttons and keyboards. Soon he was creating cornucopia of rhythms and tunes - from rhumbas and mambos to a touch of Mozart. On request, he’d love playing a particular sound - a tinkling bell, as part of a Christmas carol, say, or maybe a drumroll to introduce a guest’s repetition of a bad joke. The instrument, a gleaming upright of mahogany and multiple rows of ivory, became what I’m sure was powerful boost to his longevity. When he finally played his last tune, one of the most painful tasks for us was how to dispose of the beloved organ. Try to sell it? Who would buy such an obsolete contraption? Send it off to the dump? No way. My father would scold from his fresh grave. But a solution came from his Latina health aide. Her evangelical church’s pastor, she declared, would love it. And it off went. I can now hear it introducing the pastor’s Sunday lesson with a hymn or accompanying the church’s lively, swinging chorus singing Spanish Christmas music.

I don't play, but my wife does, and so I have always thought that it was my obligation to provide her with a piano. As anyone in New York will tell you, here in the homeland of Steinway especially, a Steinway is the only piano to own. The price of a new baby grand however is roughly the cost of a not so modest home in Florida. Thus, I was forced to wait out the appearance of a good piano in one of the many thrift shops in New York in which, for the price of a good used car, one can hope to find something in decent shape. One soon discovers that this usually means something built in the 1930s or earlier that has a history. And it won't be a Steinway; more likely some second or third tier brand in less than perfect shape. My first thrift shop piano was not a baby grand, but I had to have it anyway. It was a large, heavy black upright into which, in gold lettering, it bore the name Krasny Oktobr. No, not the submarine, this Red October was a popular brand piano made in Russia. I asked an older man perusing it in the shop if he could play it for me before I purchased it, and as all but the worst pianos will when played by a good musician, it sounded great--full and rich--in this case not only rich with sound but with history. How many New Yorkers could boast of having a piano made in the U.S.S.R.? When I later found a baby grand made by the respected firm of Chickering, I came to have two pianos since I couldn't part with my Soviet conversation piece.

Moved into a neighborhood 33 years ago and found out that the woman across the street had several degrees in music, particularly extensive piano training and was giving piano lessons. My wife and my two elementary school aged (at the time) children expressed a desire to take lessons with her. At the piano teacher's recommendation I bought as much piano as I could afford, a full studio Samick, which now seems a crazy commitment considering our financial resources at the time. I know it surprised the piano teacher. My wife and kids did the whole lessons, recitals, and even some piano competition routine. The best part is that they did it together. Never took lessons myself, too busy making a living, but I absolutely believe it was the single best investment I ever made in my children's development. My wife received invaluable good from it as well. My daughter still fools with a professional grade electronic piano. My son bought himself a baby grand which is the first thing you see when you enter his home, and he is very proud of it. I still have the Samick full studio, and my wife plays it when she thinks I won't hear her (she's shy about her playing, and the recitals she had to do as required by her piano teacher were very beneficial to her overall confidence). Funny thing about the piano training was that it enabled my kids to later pick up guitar, banjo, and even the harmonica totally self taught.

I love my piano never mind that it takes up a third of my living room

Nothing lovelier than having my daughters taking lessons, practicing for their recitals & decades later playing a long ago learned duet ! Just knowing they CAN, has enriched their lives !

Get rid of it even if you pay someone to haul it off and recycle it. Replace it with something satisfying to your son and your lifestyle. As an adult I wanted to learn piano and was thrilled (at the time) to be offered a Kimball baby grand. These are kindly referred to as furniture pianos. The further I got in my lessons the more disservice that piano did to me. It fell out of tune quickly and had very little dynamic range. I gave it to my piano tuner for his apprentice to practice refinishing and replaced with a beautiful, quality instrument that is a delight to play and has helped me make rapid gains. This isn’t about maintaining someone else’s memories. It a bad instrument. Ditch it, period.

I remember looking around for pianos with my parents when I started playing the piano. If the piano was old most people were willing to give it away for free. It just takes up too much space. A new baby grand can cost upwards of 10,000 so it would be hard to part with even an old one. But as someone who can play the piano for hours straight, I would prefer a fully functional studio over a broken baby grand any day.

I bought myself a graduation present almost 50 years ago--a 7' 4" Kawai grand and it's been with me for life. It's negotiated steep driveways, over rockeries and once doubled as a dining room table in my first tiny home. It later sat behind two glass French doors which would both open on summer evenings to entertain the neighbors. It's been played by some of the finest pianists in the world. Today, it sits in a tiny one room log cabin in remote Alaska after being barged up the coast and tractored up a steep muddy beach. I wouldn't go anywhere without it. I've learned to repair it, tune it and play it; there is no finer relaxation after a hard day's work than to sit and play Chopin or Brahms before bedtime. It's my best friend.

I had the same problem - a baby grand that took up half the space in the living room and eventually became a shelf for family photos. Then I decided to update the living room a few years ago and finally brought myself to part with the baby grand. I traded it in on a Yamaha upright. And now I'm practicing again!

Keep the piano. I have two in my home (one is electric). And learn how to play. It's never too late, I started in my forties.

I'm positive the Times has run several articles about how no one wants pianos any more. You can neither sell them nor give them away. Thousands are scrapped every year. I believe their wood is often repurposed, the metal, what there is of it, recycled. Keyboards are the wave of the future. Best of all, when you plug in your headphones, you don't disturb anyone else in the building.

The piano did its work. Like a loving elderly grandparent or uncle or aunt living with your family, it gently inspired, motivated and coaxed your children to play musical instruments and more importantly, appreciate music. Like aging family members who can no longer function with minimal help, in addition to taking valuable real estate in your home, it has become a source of stress but attachment remains which is really the source of the stress, Very well written, Thank you.

There’s always room for a grand piano...tho one needs to start with it as the ‘focal point’ of the room (not the tv), then scale back on furniture size...big, bulky clunky sofas, chairs n recliners, so popular, make a room feel cramped even without the piano (all that big stuff isn’t really as comfy as it appears)...it works....my steinway L and i have had many years and many homes n a variety of spacial configurations...never been a problem But...if you arent gonna play it regularly, why have it?

I can't bear to part with family pieces, so when I heard my great grandmother's Lester upright needed a new home, I took it into mine. Luckily I had a huge dining room. The piano later followed me to a smaller house with a sunroom relatively empty of furniture. When I stopped playing it, the Lester held family photos. Then came our move to Tennessee. The Lester had to go. Googling used pianos for sale told the sad truth that pianos, once the center of family gatherings, had lost their place. Luckily the local children's home was holding its yearly fundraiser--a huge indoor yard sale. I paid a piano moving company to take Lester across town, where he sold for about the price of the move. I hope his next family is more faithful to music than mine.

As a professional piano technician, I urge the writer not to buy a console to replace the grand. Your child appears to making real headway in his lessons, so invest in a studio model of at least 45 inches in height, such as a Yamaha U1 or Kawai K-3 or K-300. The difference in quality and tone is remarkable when you move from an entry-level console (or, worse yet, a spinet, which mercifully no one manufactures anymore) to a professional, late-model studio or upright.

I started learning the piano at the age of 3 from my mother on a beautiful Baldwin Acrosonic spinet, with a mahogany finish and ivory keys. When I started elementary school at a Catholic school, she signed me up for lessons with Sr. Augustine, with whom I studied until the end of high school. When I decided to be a music major in college, my parents bought me a small Baldwin grand, about 5’ which was a tremendous upgrade from the old spinet. I loved this piano and it served me well throughout college and graduate school. But eventually I outgrew it, as I became a professional musician in need of a really fine instrument. I finally found the piano of my dreams, a 1936 Steinway B (7’), but in my small house, it was like putting 10 pounds into a 5 pound bag! My solution..... buy a bigger house.

I'm glad the author will still get another piano. We just had a Carol sing along with almost 40 people using an upright piano. I'd love a Steinway baby grand or Mason&Hamlin, but we don't have the coin or the long term space. We have the third American produced piano, Charles Walter. I'd encourage folks to learn even basic carols on the piano as it is a festive and fun way to ring in the holidays. Don't buy used pianos without researching the process (there are book resources) and hire a certified piano tuner to check it out. The author should have done this prior to accepting this piano.

As a 12-year old girl in 1963, I was a serious piano student. Unbeknownst to my parents, I took the bus downtown every Saturday to play a beautiful Baldwin baby grand I had discovered at a music store. Unbeknownst to me, the owner eventually told my father. On my 13th birthday that year my mother called me to dinner. On my way to the kitchen I stopped dead in my tracks in the living room where sat that beautiful piano. I burst into tears. The people who had just delivered the piano, the owner, and my parents all clapped. I called my piano teacher immediately who came over to give me a lesson. It was one of the happiest days of my life and one of the most treasured memories I have of my parents. Throughout my adulthood the piano came with me wherever I moved. I went on to become a social worker but continued to play for my own enjoyment. My son took lessons for a few years as a child before moving on to other interests but would play when he came home during college breaks and later, when he came to Nashville for visits. For many years I had lived in a small condo and the piano took up a substantial part of the living room. Two years ago, in advance of another move, I decided the time had come. I found a place that would sell it on commission, and it sold for more than my parents had paid for it. The memories— priceless.

I get it! I went through the same thing with my very old, hard-to-keep-tuned upright this year. I put it on Craigslist and ordered a couch, then - when someone wanted it - deleted the listing and canceled the couch. For my sins, I continue to play an instrument that is off. A piano in a home is such a lovely, "homey" thing but it's time to look at keyboards (and couches).

Your column makes me think of some heart-felt comments by Robert Greenberg, a composer and super-star music professor. He spoke of how painful it is for professional pianists to visit the homes of wealthy music benefactors, and see top of the line grand pianos they will never be able to afford--with the lids down, covered by photos.

Sadly for those of us in the piano industry, this article while well meaning, is full of the misinformation that abounds about old pianos. Kranich & Bach made about the worst piano in US piano production. If they had instead invested in a really nice small upright the space issue would have been solved and their children would have had a functional instrument that was fun to play and their interest would have been heightened. We field questions like this every day and while it is our job to educate the consumer about quality, it is terribly frustrating to encounter the type of emotional but not fact based attachment to an instrument of no value. One of the posters said that you could put better guts into a piano like this. That is patently wrong. The customer would never be able to recover the enormous cost of doing so for a piano that would never perform like a new one. The frustration that we see is that the child who is saddled with a piano like this does not know the difference between their inability to do what the piano teacher tells them and the piano's inability to perform. Thus child after child with parents who know no better, quit piano lessons assuming that the problems they are having rest in their talent or willingness to work. And the old awful piano is given away to neighbors down the street to begin the process again.

I was thrilled when my daughter relented and accepted the spinet that my grandfather paid for when I was 6, that had moved halfway across the country with me a year after I married. It's not a great instrument, but it would have broken my heart to put it on the curb to die. Now she plays it every day, and my grandsons are showing an interest in learning to play.

my ex-wife decided we needed a piano so one of the kids could take lessons. we spent 400 dollars on an old upright and the daughter proceeded to take lessons, participate in a recital, and then one day when i drove her to the lesson, climbed up on the shelf behind the back seat of the car and refused to budge. so i went inside and told the teacher, i think she's done. the piano lingered for several years and then we tried to move it along. no takers. i took it out on the porch and disassembled it. there are still pieces of it in the cellar, the big cast iron harp thing is still leaning against the house, tucked behind the lilacs. i up-cycled some of the parts into a cabinet under the bathroom sink which i wish i could post a picture of it came out so good. and some of the soundboard went to another life as the soundboard for a hammered dulcimer i made. i fretted for a long time about what to do with it. a piano is such a substantial thing. it didn't feel right to just throw it away. but at least some of it got a new life.

I grew up with a baby grand - it was my dad's when he was a kid (1920's). In fact, I've never lived in a home without that piano, or many years later, a newer model, which is odd as I don't play the piano. It's just become a permanent aspect of my landscape. Eventually my daughter began to play the piano seriously (along with the double bass), intent on becoming a composer, (which she is!). I loved listening to her play. But she has grown up, and moved on, and has no room for it, so it sits. She does play it when she comes home - about once a year ;-) Those are special moments! As several people have mentioned, used pianos are not a rare or valued commodity, and it's really hard for me to imagine my home without one, but I am finally done with it, at least in my head... not sure about my heart.

I have a studio upright, purchased 40 years ago, that has been relegated to the guest room. But I promised myself that before I die, I’m going to buy a grand piano. And so I did. A 1928 parlor grand at 6-feet that takes up 1/3 of the living room! But I do play it everyday. The kicker is that my children haven’t got the slightest interest in learning to play. I’ll leave it to them to figure out what to do with the pianos when I finally fall off the twig!

Both my former wife and I are pre-baby boomers, meaning born around the time of Pearl Harbor. Each of us was raised with a full separate dining room in daily use. So, when we married in the early 60's, we set up our very small early-twentieth century four-room apartment to have a room where a fold-down standard-sized post-war hollow interior door could serve more or less as a dining table. When we moved into a conventional 1920's one-bedroom apartment, we set up a dining table in the large vestibule. While in that apartment, we acquired an 1820's, signed maple and mahogany solid and veneered sideboard which sat in the livingroom adjacent to the dining table. We moved twice more in the 70's, and ended up in a conventional post-war middle class apartment with no dedicated dining space. So, we devoted somewhat over a third of that space to dining, even acquiring an 1820's NYC mahogany table. We were being as true as possible to our upbringings. Ahah, second daughter was born and turned out to be a musician, and in the 80's we acquired a 5'6" baby grand; a little awkward for the 1820's dining furniture. So, in a gradual bow to reality the table went first to storage, then was sold; the sideboard was later donated to the Bennington Museum. The musical daughter graduated from conservatory, got her M.A.M., moved out, and left the piano behind. Eventually she sold it. Moral: always adapt to changing circumstances; sooner is better than later, later better than never.

I bought an old upright piano in the 1990s when my son and daughter were 7 and 4 and starting lessons. I learned to cherish the wonderful time I spent listening to Beethoven and Debussy and Grieg and Schumann as they became more proficient. Christmas time was the best as they loved playing that sleigh ride duet . They both moved far away and seldom returned. The piano got outta tune and wasn’t played and was sad My husband was transferred to California and i was alone and sad in a big house in Florida staring at a piano that used to give me hours of pleasure and now just stared back in silence. I decided to join my husband so the piano went to a guy in south Florida who sent two friends to pick it up. I cried and took several pics as I watched it leave on the truck. It’s gone to a small church in Mexico apparently. I hope it’s being played. I miss it and my children and the music they played that used to bring me so much joy.

I inherited a beautiful 1907 upright piano my mother bought when I was seven. It was the first piece of furniture she purchased and the only thing in her living room for years. I'm wistful for the world I never knew, when pianos were the center of entertainment and social occasions. I recently read here that "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was written to perform at parties. How I wish I was part of such a circle now.

I received a baby grand piano a few years ago from Freecycle. Only caveat was we had to pick it up. We spent a few hundred dollars getting it tuned and repaired. We had the space for it and enjoy it.

My mother had a beautiful baby grand that she bought from the Baldwin warehouse even before I was born. The family story is that she and her brother, equally talented pianists, started at each end of the warehouse and played every piano until they met in the middle with one they both liked. This piano shared space in the smallish living room in our apartment in Brooklyn New York from 1954 until around 1985. When we bought a home, the living room required that the piano would fit into it. It fit beautifully, nestled around large mirrors. Though I knew how to play and had taken lessons faithfully as a child and a teenager, it rarely got used as a musical instrument, but became the repository of many, many family pictures. My musical son played it for several years until hockey and other sports won out....But we never considered getting rid of it, it was part of the family's musical heritage, as so many other people have mentioned. Last year we sold our house and knew we could not be taking the piano with us to our new home across the world in Israel. Every relative was contacted and asked if they wanted "the family piano". As luck would have it, a cousin living in California, the granddaughter of my piano teacher aunt, was happy to take it. Talented piano movers took it apart and put it back together in its new home and two new generations are playing the piano now, probably more often than I did. That is what I would call a happy ending fit for a musical instrument!

Such a familiar story. Our family was given a beautiful but very old (1888) huge, heavy upright piano, I learned as a child to play it. When I bought a house it happily ended up with me. The cost of unending repairs led it to become an interesting piece of furniture, great for book and object display. The kids learned to play on it, but over the years I found that I wanted that flawed hulking mass of beautifully carved wood banished. Finally one day after years of silent anguish, it was put up on Craigs list--so happy that I didn't have to take a sledge hammer to it! So happy now with an electronic piano and a refreshed living room! I sometimes wonder how long it will take the happy new owner to feel the burden of her worthless free treasure?

If a piano is not of very good quality, needs frequent repairs and no one uses it it's the same as having a junk car sitting in your front yard. No point in being sentimental over a inanimate object. A chain saw will make short work of it.

Pianos in apartments don't go together

Our long unused upright piano, the one that I practiced on for less than a year, was finally cut up and made into some chunky coffee tables by my father. after he retired. No one wanted it or a beautiful roller desk in the 60-70s. Sounds like it is the same now. I'll bet you could put it in the front yard and no one would pick it up. Are pool tables that way too?

I am genuinely waiting for a follow-up to this article!

My husband and I just bought a house that included an old upright that someone had painted white years ago. It looks like a prop from an old movie and has a very dark, rich tone that makes everything sound like March of the Vampires. I'm already quite attached to the thing, despite its need of repairs and its extreme weight. It's the sort of object I would never have sought out but am thrilled to own "accidentally."

In the 1920s, my grandfather bought a Mehlin baby grand for my mother (born in 1908); she became an accomplished pianist. When she played it as I grew up, my heart filled with joy. I kept it from her death in 1965 until this past September, when my husband and I downsized from an 11-room farmhouse to a 5-room ranch house in a 55+ community. Our daughters learned to play on it, and one--now in her 40s--was broken-hearted when I told her it must go. What to do?! I offered it to everyone I could think of--gratis--and a local college joyfully accepted it. The college paid for it to be moved and tuned, and it's now in daily use as a practice piano for music majors. We visited it last week. It was so hard to say goodbye to that dear old friend, but it was either lose the piano or perch our bed on top of it. Everyone's happy!

A couple of years ago, a friend and former colleague, then working at a historical society in another state, told me that the two items most frequently offered to the society's collections were vintage wedding and pianos. The wedding dresses weren't much of a surprise, the pianos were. Apparently people are desperate to find homes for pianos that family members have no room for, can't play, don't want. Even museums, historical houses, and schools have no suggestions for places that will take old pianos in. Maybe a small church congregation?

I have my grandmother's piano BENCH, and it's the most versatile thing I own. It's a coffee table, tv stand, night stand, dining table, desk, extra seating, shelving, and storage for candles. When I moved from Pittsburgh back home to Illinois, my brother-in-law somehow fit that bench into the trunk of a mid-sized sedan, along with all my other most important worldly goods. I love that thing.

"I took the listing down, pulled out the tape measure and set to work, searching for a way to make the piano fit better." We have always had a (second-hand) baby grand -- and in apartments. Somehow it always fits some corner or another. You just have to want it to fit. The piano used to get tuned once a year, but nowadays we get it tuned every seven or so months. Much better than going out to a restaurant and coming home saying "It was just all right." Some repairs we can do ourselves -- I once glued a hammer arm that had split, and it continues to work. And one can carefully space hammers with a gentle prod of a screwdriver. I wouldn't be without a grand. Even a small one has a "grand" sound.

For many years after I stopped playing a Roland synthesizer that straddled two floor speakers in my bedroom, I kept it covered with a cloth while piling papers, clothing and miscellaneous junk on top of it.

maybe you can use the piano's wood to make your coffee table. and discard the rest. It sounds horrible (pun intended) to destroy a music instrument, but let's be honest: if it's not a brand name and if it is becoming too expensive due to maintenance, it's time to part with it. Another idea? Take the piano's main body with its guts removed, attach it to the wall and transform it into a weird shaped bookcase.

I predict that nobody will take the piano and it will have to be disposed of (at a cost of several hundred dollars). It's the sad reality of pianos today. Nobody in their right mind will pay to move a piano in need of repair...

I had an upstairs neighbor who had TWO pianos of this size in their 12 x 23 foot living room. They never played them. Go figure.

It was great to hear that your kids evolved into music, possibly because of the presence of your piano. Most pianos are brought into a home with the best intentions, only to become a place for family photos. Photos of all the family members who cant play the piano. I feel bad for the unused pianos but worse for all the guitars in closets and under beds that never see the light of day.