Retraction on the Desk Part

There's a phenomenon sweeping the 1939 Wurlitzer piano nation. It's called "What Once Seemed Broken Now Is Fixed". For reals. And this is leading to the first proven theory of projecting: no project ends how it began, or in other words: scope change.

Here's what happened:

We thought a lot about this new and upcoming piano desk. I wrote a little story about it and I published it on this blog. And then I started taking the piano apart to prepare it for its new life as a desk. But here's the thing...when E came home from school he said, "Oh look! The piano's not broken any more." And me in my making-dinner stupor said, "Yeah, whatever."

But then, really, E was right. I investigated the piano, and what do you know?! The keys that used to not play, played and the hammers that were once a little wanky were all straight!

Do you need proof?

This picture I took at 4:04 PM on February 26, 2013.

Your focus should be primarily on the hammers that are not aligned. THIS IS NOT NORMAL and it leads to a not normal piano playing experience.

This picture I took at 2:13 PM on February 27, 2013.

Your focus should now be on the beautiful alignment of the hammers (aside from the G below middle C hammer, which is in fact the low low low C hammer that was called in as a replacement...and what is one its butt? A clothes pin. That's how we role here in 2ndhand land.)

The difference? I unscrewed the bridge that sits behind the keys. Woops!

The piano will no longer be a desk. It will remain a piano. But it is still in for a good make over and a great project. Stick around and see what we have for you.

the Piano Project

"What do you do with a broken piano?"

This is the question we have been asking ourselves for awhile.

And now you might be asking, "How do you know your piano is broken?"

Well, there just comes a time in your life when you know your piano is broken. 

Some clues that might tip you off that your piano is broken?

# your keys do not sit evenly...they are always perpetually doing the wave

# you thought just the "G below middle C" key was broken until you fixed it and 20 other keys broke

# it's from the Great Depression era

# your good friend gave it to you for free and she got it for free from someone else

(just to name a few)

Back to my original question, "What do you do with a broken piano?" I am sure you think the answer is give it to Goodwill, freecycle it, craigslist it, or put in the dumpster (let's not start on the fallacies of putting it in the dumpster...sorry Mom).

But a little more ingenuity would lead to a better idea. An idea that may change your life forever. And this is it: why not make it into a desk?

You see, we have been living 2ndhand for awhile now and the desk we found for free by the dumpster is kind of getting old, not to mention ugly and un-ergonomic. So, let's make a project out of the piano and make it useful in this house of ours.

One man's junk is another man's treasure. In our case we happen to be the same "man". Stay tuned to see how it turns out and feel free to offer suggestions to make it even extra shnazzy-er!

What color would you paint your piano desk?

Would you take the keys out and put a wood surface in or would you leave the keys and put a glass surface over the top?

Do you think we're crazy?