Days 17 and 18 – Tuesday, June 15 and Wednesday, June 16:

Goals: Paint underside of the piano.

Music: Count Basie’s complete Decca recordings (disk 3); Tony Bennett’s “MTV’s Unplugged”

Tuesday night I filled some more cracks and small holes on the underside of the piano with wood filler because I just wasn’t happy with the cosmetics of the under surface. This time, however, I did take notice of where the legs will be covering up the bottom so that I didn’t spend a lot of time repairing something that hardly anybody would ever see.

Wednesday night I sanded down everything, cleaned up, wiped down the surface, and painted everything to a smooth even flat black coat. I also cleaned up the room again, pulling out the one area rug that my cat peed on when he got trapped in that room after I put up plastic to keep the dust down. (He was smart enough to get in but not smart enough to get out.) I vacuumed everything, put everything away, and after some minor reorganization tonight, I should be ready to have the piano refurbishing guy come visit on Friday.

The former owner of this piano contacted me yesterday with a lead on an ornate, antique upright piano at a local thrift shop. Sale price: $18. That sounds like a refurbishing project I could actually do in the garage. I’ll probably at least go and have a look at it on Friday, since I’ll be down that way, anyways…