FINALLY finished that Piano!!

Everyone has been listening to me complain that I'm tired and have no time for a year and half because of the PIANO~ it seems to have taken on a life of it's own and all of my life too! Well~ I'm finally done!! (mostly~ it has to cure for a week and then get a good rub out with paste wax, but THAT'S the easy part!) It was so much work~ I just gotta show it off!

This is an old piano that was in Scott's Grandfathers house. When Grandpa Marchek passed away Scott's Aunt asked if I could refinish it. I cheerfully volunteered. I had NO CLUE how much work was involved! I hated this piano more days than not~ but I'm glad I took the task on. It's certainly a family heirloom now!
This is what it looked like when I got it:




A year and half later~ and more work than I want to think about~ (damn thing was green and gold under that black and orange paint! and the green was oil based and soaked into the wood grain!) this is what it looks like now!



We don't know how long Grandpa Marchek had the piano~ but we do know he was not the original owner. While working to strip the nasty paint I discovered through various dates and serial number found on the piano that the Piano is an Aeolian brand. The case and bench were manufactured in 1906. The piano plate was manufactured in 1920. The keys were manufactured in 1936. My understanding now is that the keys are most likely ivory. Wish I'd know that before I used sandpaper to remove the black paint and years of grime from what I thought were plastic keys! Oh well~ live and learn and hopefully not too much damage had been done to the keys if they are in fact ivory.

wow THIS IS FANTASTIC!!!! You did a SERIOUSLY Beautiful job! Gorgeous gorgeous!

I think the ivory will be alright with a little sandpaper to buff it up. I would think plastic would not take it as well and scratch much worse. I wouldnt worry on that, its beautiful!!!!

Thanks! That thing was a LOT of work! I wanted to save as much of the original piece as possible. It's hard to tell in the photo~ but there is scroll work trim along the side and front. I was able to save the side pieces but I had to replace the front. I cleaned all the original brass hardware that was on it. Cleaned all the ivory (or plastic?) keys. Painted all the black ones. Just a ton of little things as well as trying to get all that oil based green paint out of EVERYTHING!

I'm so proud I don't know how I'm gonna bring myself to send it home with Scott's Aunt! But I will~ I don't want it hear haunting me anymore! And besides~ we have an organ here in the house that came from Grandpa~ last thing we need is a piano too......when not ONE person in this house can play either instrument!

Cheryl, you have created a beautiful heirloom. Congratulations on completing the task.
Now lets see what I have lying around I can send your way to re-do.
LOL

Originally Posted by Ginger Ambrose

Cheryl, you have created a beautiful heirloom. Congratulations on completing the task.
Now lets see what I have lying around I can send your way to re-do.
LOL

Oh shes going to hate you for that one!

NO MORE!!!!

Actually~ I love doing this kind of stuff~ it's such a pleasure to find the beauty under the ugly........but if I'd known there was oilbased green paint under that black and orange paint, or thought about how tedius it would be to clean the green and black paint out of the scroll work and off all the brass work and keys......I would not have volunteered for the job quite so cheerfully!

I've worked with wood, and have actually refinished a piece or two of furniture. NEVER again.

That is one SWEET looking instrument, you did a really fine job there.

Thanks Wes!

I didn't take very many progression pics. Considering how long it took me~ there would be thousands of pics if I took progression pics~ but here are a couple I did take





Wish I had taken a pic of the brass work (hinges, foot petals) before I cleaned them. I thought they were just going to have to be thrown out they were so caked with dirt, grime and paint. But then I discovered I could not find EXACTLY the same brass work to replace them......and so I tried cleaning one and when it finally came clean and gleamed......well there where several hours spent with a toothbrush, a toothpick, a dremmel tool and a bottle of brasso to bring them back to thier shiny glory! I did buy new brass screws~ trying to get all the crap out of the slots on over 50 screws was just more than I could take!

OMG, you took something horrid and made it into a a piece of beaty!
Much kudos to you as I could not have had that kind of patience.
You did a wonderful job!

Cheryl, that's amazing! You did a fabulous job! I refinished my kitchen cabinets once thinking it would be a weekend project (damn those HGTV shows!) and it ended up taking forever, so don't think a year and a half is really all that bad!

I hope you get lots of enjoyment out of it!