(AF) MOVING UPDATE - - A Buffet and a Piano

My emotions seem to be running on such a roller coaster of highs and lows right now. One minute I am so excited that I found something that survived the flooding and other destructiveness and got it moved, then the next I am at an extreme low when I learn of a total loss of a beloved keepsake.

Three of David's fantastic relatives came yesterday to lend their muscles to move the buffet and my piano. (Bless you all!) The lighting is very dim in this house, especially since I have had to cut most of the power to it off a few months ago. Both of these (piano and buffet) have been stored in a corner in an area we had thought to be one of the safest and driest in the house. When they went to move the buffet, they could see that quite a bit of the laminate was coming off of the back and it had sustained a little bit of some other high humidity damage, but it was movable. It may no longer have its full antique value, but we can still probably refurbish it into our kitchen counter/cabinet in our future Tiny House, as we had planned. I was so glad to see the great, extra pains they still took with the mirror to get it moved safely. That mirror is the original mirror on the piece and supposedly over 100 years old!

My piano, which I have had since I was 5 years old, and matches this buffet, doesn't have such a good ending. It is extra heavy ... an antique upright, player piano. We were so very poor when I received that piano and my dad must have had to pay half or more of his month's paycheck to get it for me. He had seen, even at an extremely young age, how much I adored music and wanted me to have something that would encourage that love over the years. I have had it moved to every house I have ever lived in over the years, always hiring piano movers to move it (it always took at least 4 of their strongest men), but this time, we can't even find a piano store in this town!

David and his helpers tugged and lugged on that old piano and, one broken toe, one asthma attack, one nearly broken arm, another smashed arm, and many more bumps, bruises and pulled muscles later, they finally managed to get it moved the 15 feet to the front door. On the way, pieces began  to drop off. As they got it into better light and looked inside, they could see that all of the metal parts inside were rusted up solid! Also, as the flood water finally made it into this front room during this last, very unseasonable heavy rains, the wood of the bottom half had apparently soaked up much moisture, making the already super heavy instrument, even heavier. Then they tried to get it across the thresh hold. Nope, wasn't happening. (Yes, the piano is on wheels) Even lifting it just two inches over the little hump seemed near impossible. It just wasn't going to move.

I stood there, hugging my beloved piano, tears flowing, and silently telling it good bye ... then told them to just push it back against the wall. I just couldn't ask them to put their bodies through any more to move a piano that could not be repaired (would have cost thousands of dollars and still wouldn't be the same) to be used again, and would only be able to be a wall decoration. Getting it unloaded where it was being moved to was going to be even far more difficult than getting it out of my house, and I could not ask them, nor anyone, to do that.

Through my tears, I asked them if there was anything at all on it that could be salvaged to be repurposed into something else, so I could  at least take part of it for memory sake. Everyone brightened up and the ideas began flowing! So . . . that will be today's project . . . to dismantle what we can of my beloved old piano, and move just a small portion of it.

Thank you for reading my post. Have a fantastically blessed day! ! !