Today Zac and I singlehandedly moved 7 pianos. Thank goodness Joe Davis sold the shop with his organ dollies. Although “organ dollies” sounds like something you might need in your old age.
That officially makes bay number three, as we like to call it, officially empty of things we “might want to save” or “need to find a place to put”. Void of things that don’t either go to the dump or the recycling center. Â That means demolition is in order. We woke up this fall with a new reserve to get a floor in the big room. The largest of the three bays. The one in the worst shape, and the one with the most potential. Oh, potential, how I hate thee.
Today I discovered that the dead man who last borrowed our organ dollies (seemed to do him no good) had in fact returned the straps, and they were neatly in a plastic bag in an environment that plastic bags disappear in. Whew on that one. With the dollies, pianos are amazingly easy to move, you really just have to use caution when going over our plywood bridges over the holes in the floor. Or the broken concrete by the doors, or the mystery pieces of wood that cover gaping holes in the floors. We had moved 6 of the pianos, and only had one grand piano left. It had been abandoned for unknown reasons by Joe Davis on a piece of wood with straps and a blanket and the termites had helped the whole situation settle into the rotting floor, being kept up by the thin carpet that seems to be holding any remaining floor up. That sounds impossible, but you should see it. We couldn’t figure out how to move this piano, but with lots of grunting and “1-2-3 Hoist!”-ing, we managed to get it out of the hole, without increasing the size of the hole with our legs. It was a constant push pull, the dollies kept slipping out, it was so heavy and unstable, it just seemed like a disaster. and it was. I wonder, what day the owner of this once beautiful grand piano had to come to terms with the fact that Joe Davis had abandoned their piano for the termites to tune, and they would never see it again. I guess at some point you would just stop calling. How many of these pianos belong to someone, and how many were given to him, and how many did he buy? I’m sure the latter is impossible, but there is a chance that 20 years ago, before they sat in this dusty room with no air conditioning, with a leaky roof, and a hungry termite farm that they were beautiful. And worth something. Time will tell how much they are worth now, but the next job is to get a floor in that room!!  September 1st is in two hours, and the month of  September is going to be magic. Magic at the piano shop. There is a dusty sign on the bathroom door that says, “Yield- it is more fun!” and it is shaped like a yield sign. And there is a day-glo pink toilet seat cover that is split in two. What has happened here?!!! Do we want to know?