Monday 30 May 2011

Too much stuff

We are considering where to put the pianola when it finally comes home.  It has never lived in this house, you see.  I had a piano of my own.  Actually, in our last house we had a boudoir grand piano which I liked very much but, although this house has fairly large rooms, they are almost square and we couldn't find anywhere for it to go so, reluctantly, we sold it.  I really missed having a piano, however, so after a while we bought an upright.  There was just room for it in the room I'm in now, on the wall between the hatchway into the kitchen and the window.  The pianola was in my mother's house, where Al and Dilly now live, so when it went for repair I gave them mine and put a bookcase where it had stood.

The problem is, the pianola is slightly larger than the piano, and it won't fit in that space and there isn't  anywhere else obviously available.  I could make room in the drawing room, but I don't want it there, both because it won't look right and because I don't want to burden the Sage with the sound of my piano practice.  There's plenty of room upstairs, but it's extremely heavy and so, even if we could manage to get it up there, I'm not sure that the floors of this old house would stand it.  There are two options, the hall or the dining room.  In either event, there's a piece of furniture in the only possible place.

It's just as well that we've been given a couple of months warning of its return.  We evidently need to do some rearranging of the furniture.   

12 comments:

Unknown said...

I'd love a piano. I've always wanted one but have either not had the room or couldn't afford one. Now my house is far too small to accommodate one. I hope you find the right place for the pianola :)

Z said...

As I wrote it, I realised that this is a pretty privileged *problem* to have, but I was too tired to take it down and write something else. We've more space than two people need, now our children have left, but far too much furniture.

kippy said...

Misread your first sentence and thought it said piranha instead of pianola :)

Dave said...

Build a music room.

Catofstripes said...

Bit of an odd comment from someone who's never read your blog before but where is your pianola being refurbished? We have searched high and low for someone to trust with ours.

Z said...

Hello, Cat, not at all, you're very welcome and I do like your blogs. I'm not sure where it was repaired in the end, my tuner told the whole tale (there had been a false start or two) and I got rather lost. I'll phone and ask him, but he's not brilliant at returning phone messages so it may take a while to find out. I have no idea how much we will be charged.

Georgie, that a poodle reads this blog at all is remarkable and the odd misread is quite understandable.

Dave, what a good idea. Are you free to lay the bricks?

The Boy said...

You might enjoy this, one of my favourite comics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn1u6tzwRxA

And yes, it is a nice problem to have, yet no less vexing because of it!

Christopher said...

I know a man called Rog who could be very interested in house clearance.

Roses said...

If you give the job of creating space to Rog, you'll be lucky if even the Bantams escape ebay.

Rog said...

Hercules objects to Pianos. And Lily joins in with the hen parties.

This post reminded me of a headmaster in Thetford who had a vast rambling house near the river crammed with dozens of large old musical instruments. When the great floods of 1978 appeared their house was awash but the headmaster appeared floating out through the French Windows of the sitting room on a vintage clavichord.

Accompanied by his wife on the piano.

Z said...

Funnily enough, Weeza and I were only mentioning Rog's name on Sunday.

Watching that clip made me twitchy, Boy. A bit close to home!

Z said...

Horses find piano playing really tricky, Rog, in my experience. They do better as hoofers.

And *groan*