My Piano!!!!

After I moved to Texas, when my mom got her new house, she gave me her piano since Heidi and Stephanie already had ones. Because I lived on the top floor in an apartment, I couldn't take it right away, so she kept it for me. While we were in Utah when she passed away, we made arrangements for it to be shipped to Illinois (where we were living at the time). It sat in our garage for a year in Illinois and, when we moved to Nashville, in the garage again. For a Christmas surprise, Don contacted a really nice gentleman who repairs pianos in his spare time. He picked up my piano in October and has been working on it for five months. He refinished all of the wood and replaced some of the pieces and fixed everything that needed fixing. After a lot of work and dealing with parts that they don't make anymore, my piano was finally delivered yesterday afternoon. All I have to say is that it was worth the wait!! It looks amazing now... better than I've ever seen it.

Here are some of the before pictures that Jack took:

As you can tell, it was in really, really bad shape. Dog bites, moving marks, and just everyday wear and tear over the last hundred years had really banged up this sweet piano.

Here are the moving pictures and after:

Doesn't it look amazing?!?! I would never have guessed that it could look this good! Jack told me what a great piano this is and how they just don't make them like it anymore. It is made of solid red mahogany by Bond Pianos. Bond built pianos from 1912- 1932, so to find one in working condition is a great find. Jack also told me that the Bond decal on the piano is one that no one in the piano restoration business has seen before, so Jack spent nearly a week trying to fix the scratched lettering on the decal.

When Jack delivered it, he also brought along what he called a bag of goodies~ things that he found inside the piano while he was cleaning it. It contained assignment cards from mine and Steph's piano lessons, a card of antique buttons from my grandmother, a scrap of paper my mother had written on, a Bazooka Joe bubble gum wrapper, and about a dollars worth of coins. It brought back memories of my childhood, not only practicing on the piano, but building tents over it and playing banker through the legs. Remember Steph? I had forgotten the hours spent around that piano...

Anyway, I'm going on and on, not just for you, but mostly for me. I am just so excited to have it back in working order. And in case you were interested, Don found out this morning that my Bond piano, in restored condition, is worth around $12,ooo. Crazy, isn't it!?

Steph and Heidi: Please correct me if I am wrong in my history~

History of Piano: This piano was built in 1914 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was delivered to Salt Lake City, Utah in the summer of 1914 to either my grandmother Vesta Frost or great-grandmother Louise Holdaway. My grandmother had it in her possession until the late 60's when she gave it to my mother. My siblings and I all learned to play on this piano. My mother had it until her passing in 2007.

So there you have it~ My fully restored antique family heirloom piano!

And honey, I didn't forget about you~ THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER! (good luck topping this next year!)