Said William50 in last night's "Snow Car" café.
He was referring to something I said in passing in an earlier post — that I had looked up "Flatter!," because it was part of an image on a card that I found in the piano bench, which I was emptying out because I'm getting rid of the piano.
Breaking up a piano made me think about this great 80s video where they destroy a piano:
And since you mentioned the harp inside, we must remember when Harpo Marx went nuts on a piano and extracted the harp:
But here's how I responded to William50 (who may not have noticed that I'd already revealed in the comments on the other post that I am paying a professional piano dealer to move the piano out of our house and to dispose of it properly):
Meade suggested doing something like [what you did]. I see multiple reasons to prefer to pay a reputable piano dealer $360 to swiftly spirit the whole hulk out of the house.
1. It's a lot of work taking the thing [apart] and lugging it [out to] the street, consuming time and effort and possibly resulting in injury to yourself and damage to doorjambs and floors.
2. It would sit out there on the terrace for all to see and to find ugly and offensively wasteful.
3. It will burden the city -- and the taxpayers -- to need to pick up these pieces and carry them away.
4. The reputable piano dealer is experience[d] in disposing of pianos and may find an actual home for the intact piano.
5. The piano will sit in its usual place, unmolested, until professionals come in and skillfully remove it in one piece. This is a company I have used 3 or 4 times in the past to move this piano from room to room, and I [trust] them to do it well.
6. I like supporting a good local business! They deserve to be paid for the work that they do. You don't have to use your own labor just because you (or your partner) can perform labor. We're doing a lot of painting this winter, putting labor into that, but if I had a local business I trusted to do this work well and without needing to spend too much time in our house, I would be glad to pay someone.
7. $360 may sound like a lot, especially if you believe your beautiful piano should be worth at least $5,000, but I choose to live in the real world, where prices are determined by supply and demand. Accept reality and make your time living in it as good as you can. Maybe you enjoyed sledgehammering a piano. I hope you did!
50 Comments on Althouse: "I see that you're going to get rid of your piano. Good luck with that. We couldn't even give ours away so I took it apart and cut it up..."
Long live the piano! Long live the cognitive mind of humanity! Long live the Enlightenment!"
When we sold the house we had a junk man take the piano. The one dude almost single handedly moved it."
I tell myself I'll buy a keyboard and play around with that. But I've not yet even gone out and priced things. But a no-piano house would be a lot roomier (at least it's not a grand)"
Tired of looking at it, I try to sell it. No takers. I called an antique music store. Nope. I find a guy that restores player pianos. Nope, he has too many.
The wood is beautiful black walnut. My next hairbrained scheme surfaces. I'll tear it apart and sell the wood to an Amish furniture maker. When I take the wood pieces to him, he tells me the wood is veneer, not solid black walnut. He can't use it. Discouraged, I tell him to burn it and haul the metal, strings and all to the scrap yard for junk. End of story. "
When I researched buying my piano, I learned something--"antique" is not a selling point. Old pianos are pretty much worthless because they can't hold a tuning. People try to "give them away" as a way to avoid the hauling charge of disposing of it properly. They try to pretend they are freecycling, but really they're just burdening someone else with their problem."
I would take it but we already have a piano (not as fancy) that my wife likes..."
Bloody awful things to play usually."
1. He needed one -- as much as anyone really needs one.
2. He knew a piano mover.
3. He lived next door.
4. No steps were involved.
5. It fit through our front door.
6. It fit through his front door.
He was happy. We were thrilled!
Now ... about the pool table ..."
Haha…we recently had to move a pool table from the middle of a room to the side, about 10 feet across the floor (had to access the ceiling above for repairs of ductwork.)
Hubs figured that he and our young adult son could easily handle it. They called me down to slip felt sliders under the feet, and then found that they couldn’t even lift a corner of it enough for me to get those in place.
Next idea was for the two of them to use lifting straps (again, just trying to hoist it about 3/4 inch off the ground.) Nope. Still too heavy.
We considered a car jack but couldn’t figure out a way to płace it. Finally my husband got a pry bar to lift and I was (barely) able to get the sliders placed and moved the beastly thing. Now i understand why it was delivered in pieces. "
“Have the piano moved to where the racist rock was.”
I like it! Step 2: post to social media that someone somewhere once referred to it as “the French piano.” Step 3: PROFIT!!!
"
Got it the exact day the Marines found Saddam Hussein in his dirt hole.
A great day all around.
I bang on it every time the house is empty; it pleases me.
My daughter really took to it; became a badass singer/writer/performer."
You would not be able to haul my piano to the curb. It takes 2 strong men and special equipment just to get it to the stoop, and from there it's 3 steps down. I'd pay $360 just to get it to the curb. Anyone wanting to just take it would need special equipment. And I bet anyone with special equipment knows that a piano has negative value. So why would they take it?
It's easy to imagine other things to do, but I'm not in the realm of the imaginary. I'm in a real situation with a real piano."
Downstairs in my husband's studio there's a spinet, left by the house's previous owners. Now that is a bear to tune, but in practice he mainly uses it to give students tuning pitches."
What did you do, build the house around the piano? I'd say you're looking at the sledgehammer-and-chainsaw solution."
For the pipe organ addicted there's... http://www.blockmrecords.org/
As Bach would have heard."
My parents plan on selling theirs with the house when they leave!"
Have you tried getting rid of a pool table? It’s a scam. You give the table away, and the new table owner is told by the pool table moving company that it needs new bumpers, and felt. They charge the new owner around $1,000. The moving company takes my resell value.
Although, I do appreciate the additional floor space in the TV room."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqg7XNvq1Vk"
That video took me back a ways--I think I saw it only once, on MTV. It was redeemed by the late appearance of the wiener dog (as so many things are).
A YUGE proportion of American publishing in the period 1850-1920 or so was of sheet music to supply the myriad demands of American middle class home and amateur musicians.
"
So: No more agonizing over last-minute gifts, trying to decide which restaurant to go to, wondering if I've bought "enough"... The piano is the best deal I've ever made. And she just turned sixty, and she's still playing it. And, she thinks it's the best deal she ever made, too.
Of course, I still do special things for her birthday. I'm not an idiot."
Old and slow said...
"They aren't all that heavy or difficult to move if you've any experience moving things. Now, moving an old lathe or milling machine can be tricky.."
I'd rather move machinery, They don't dent as easily.
"
We spent a lifetime believing it a valuable and rare jewel. Turns out that most families of means had one and they all treated theirs the same way."