There’s lots of stuff going on around here – work and summer plans and more. Sometimes it’s not easy to come up with a topic for blogging but random is always good. And 3 random things will be quick and easy, both for me to write and you to read. See how I always think of what’s best for you? And so – – –
Last Monday I gave away the piano that my parents bought for me when I was 10. This was not a decision I took lightly and it’s something I’ve actually been trying to do for well over a year. Facebook friends and connections didn’t pan out so I finally put it on Craig’s List and I had a request within an hour from a woman with 2 small boys who are starting piano lessons in the fall. Since the piano was free she and her husband hired movers to come and take it away. She was so happy about it and even sent me a photo of her boys sitting on the piano bench once it was safely ensconced in their family room. This is a very good thing but still – I’ve had that piano for almost 40 years and it’s a loss. I never play and it was taking up space that we have a very good plan for but still – I feel some guilt over this. I’m holding close to the memory of playing it last Christmas Eve with our friends and family all boisterously singing Christmas carols and that’s helping me to cope.
After a year of talking about it (and about 17 years of me wishing for it!) we are finally having new siding put on our house. It was previously blue and faded and didn’t even match in the back from when we enclosed the mudroom and this update was long overdue. Now it’s going to be white with white trim and green doors except for the front door which will be walnut. We are getting some new windows and a new front door and new screen doors for the kitchen door and mudroom and a custom order window for the room that formerly held the piano and it’s all very exciting. And noisy. And dusty.
I am making progress with Book Bingo – are you? I’ve got 4 in one row but the final square in that row is a book recommended by a family member. That should be simple enough as I have a family of readers but I have this uneasy feeling that Dale would recommend some giant and boring Civil War tome and Hannah would recommend some high brow English literature thing. So I’m working on other rows and avoiding asking them for a recommendation.
So those are my random things and I guess I had more to say than I realized – this post definitely wasn’t as short as I thought but I’m hoping you’ve read all the way through anyway. Right? Right.
I love Random Posts – a great way to catch up on stuff you might not otherwise think to share. Your house is going to be so pretty with the white and green! and Yay! for 4 squares in a row. I am 2 squares (poetry collection and graphic novel) away from 2 bingos. Why don’t you ask Dale and Hannah for suggestions of books they think you’d like (and could actually finish in short order!) Happy Thursday!!
I can’t wait to see your house with the new siding. How exciting!
Right!
The new exterior for your house will be excellent! You’ll love it so . . . that maybe, eventually, it will help cure the sting of the piano. As for the piano? Try to think about the wonderful music (well, maybe not right away!!!) that it will be making in someone else’s life now. Sometimes it’s just . . . time . . . to let go of things. No guilt; just happy memories.
(And I’m so off on the Book Bingo thing! The books I read tend to be too looooooong. Plus I just can’t make myself read a book “I think I will dislike” (right. . .)!)
Should you decide you really miss having a piano,but still don’t want to use the room space, I heartily recommend the Cassio electronic keyboards. I’ve used one for performances for over a decade. They are touch sensitive (meaning they are like playing a piano, not an organ), they never need to be tuned, and they sit happily in a closet when not being used.
Yup, all the way through.
Home projects are always a bit stressful, but you’ll be so happy when its done.
The piano is just a thing, its your memories of it that are important. Good on you for putting it into a situation where it will be used and loved. I always feel bad for my things that don’t get used and feel better passing them on to someone else who will enjoy them more.
The piano found a good home. I gave mine away, too and knowing how happy someone else is helps with the loss, plus the freed up space is a huge boon! I will miss your blue house, but the white looks classic and clean, new and beautiful. A green door is just perfectly you. Your flowers will pop against the new white and think of all that light! No Bingo for me. Although I wouldn’t mind reading a graphic novel, reading an author with my first name is impossible. lol
xox
We’ve got house things going as well…not as quickly as I would like but so necessary and great in the long run. I think the white is going to be lovely! And here’s hoping that piano leads one of those boys to Symphony Hall!
Some people let go easily and others not so much. My mother was the former, thus turning me into the latter. It’s hard to find that middle ground, so congratulations on making a hard decision. I hope that whatever you’re planning for that space more than makes up for the loss!
A nice historical novel works better than a Civil War tome any day! (Sorry, Dale)
I had our piano moved up to the coffee shop, so it’s still technically mine but it’s not taking up space in my living room. One of the local piano teachers has her recitals there! Win-win. Home improvement is always messy, but it’ll be so worth it! Can’t wait to see. The book rec has to come from immediate family???
Similar story with the piano. Ours is a lovely little spinnet, but I’m keeping it although it sees use mostly at Christmas or when little kids are visiting and play “thunder and lightning” with their stickly little fingers.
Yay on the house updates! It’s such a nice feeling to look around and know that things are in good shape, and also that they are what you want. We have been doing that too. Last summer my mother moved from 6,000 square feet to 2,000 (she’s 90). There were so many things to get rid of that had been in the family since she was a girl. I felt guilty, too, not being able to, or wanting to, keep so many of those things. I put several of them in a storage unit and have spent hundreds of dollars storing them this last year. Now I can get rid of things so much easier, but it took time to let go of the chair I had in my room when I was growing up, and the table we ate at when I was a toddler. I decided that I had put too much value on those things because my family had been broken, and it has helped me to realize that I could let go and not be more broken myself. Make any sense? My sister got the baby grand–she will have a hard time later!
I’m glad your last memory of the piano was our Christmas Eve sing a long. You will always have those fond feelings. Love the new siding, will there be a a porch too? I remember you talking about that.
I’m glad your piano found a good home! It’s hard to part with those things but sometimes it has to be done. I hate home renovations but the end result is always worth the noise and the dust!!
I did the siding thing two years ago. I had just retired, so I was home all day while they were working. I was glad when it was finished—it seemed that every time I had to use the bathroom, some strange dude was standing right outside the window on a ladder. (!) My house was a very faded slate blue and the new siding is pale gray. I have to admit that it took awhile to get used to—I drove by my house a few times in the first week it was finished. And why is it so hard to get rid of a piano? I think that in my case it was the guilt. My parents didn’t have allot of money, and it was a sacrifice for them to pay for my lessons. (I took lessons for about 10 years.) But I’m not a musician. I do feel guilty that they gave up so much for me and I didn’t really appreciate (or want) it.
Yup. I read all the way to the end. 🙂
You’ll love the house rejuvenation. I hope it doesn’t take too long to get finished.
You’ll have to claim another reader as a family member for the book bingo…I’d love to be a cousin! 😀 And I would recommend Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver.
I love that you are stacking the deck on the book recommendation!
Know that piano feeling. I had one since the age of six, that I paid more than its monetary worth for in moving costs over the years. Now my daughter has done the same and she has it in her family room. I still miss it but it’s having a more active life with her and I’m happy about that.