Day 55 – Sunday, September 26 – Stain in the Rain:

Goals: Finish (maybe) the staining; finish (maybe) painting the harp.

Music: Art Farmer’s “Farmer’s Market”; Chico Freeman’s “Destiny’s Dance”; Bill Frisell’s “Have a Little Faith”; Errol Garner’s “Concert by the Sea”.

After raining a good portion of the night and with a light sprinkling in the morning, it was obvious I’d be taking a big chance if I decided to do any staining yesterday. Thing is, there was only one more coat left to go, and I couldn’t wait to finish, so I made up my mind to move the car out, turn on the ceiling fans (which I installed when we were still playing poker in the garage), and even with the high humidity, go ahead and stain the lid.

And so I did.

Since this was the final coat, I had to be careful how I did the edges and make sure I didn’t get any marks on either side, so I put some masking tape on the sawhorses and got my fingers pretty dirty picking up the half dried boards to touch them up after I applied the final coat. The lid panels do not look perfect. They never were going to, due to the defects in the veneer, both antique and recent, and some of the repairs being more obvious than I had hoped. I am of a mind, however, that when the panels are completely dry, they should be able to be waxed and polished and that should make them look pretty good. Whatever, they look way better than when I started.

Same goes for the harp. I hadn’t planned to repaint the whole thing, but once I started touching it up, I could tell the paint color of the brush-on paint from a can was just different enough from the spray (same maker, same color: Rustoleum Gold) that I would need to go over the whole thing. It turned out a little uneven, but it gives the harp a rather classic effect of having been burnished and unevenly polished. Like the lid panels, it had a hard time drying in the moist air (it was not warm enough to turn on the air conditioning), but it did get dry enough by the late evening to pick it up and prop it back against the wall.

I’m thinking that with the staining, varnishing, and painting finished, I ought to be able to replace the harp, and if I want, even go ahead and string the piano. I’m double-checking with my piano expert to make sure I haven’t overlooked anything, but I think one evening this week, that is what I’m going to be doing. I should even be able to string the piano before too long, even though the keys and such are not ready yet. (That’s the next area I have to focus on.)

Yes there is still quite a ways to go, but we are definitely getting close to the completion of this project.