Check out this baby...

Grand that is.


She's the newest addition to our family, and I am so excited!

I've been playing the piano since I was about 7 years old, so the last four years without a piano handy have been an adjustment for me. I have always enjoyed being able to sit down and play and sing at a whim. But when I left Montana, I knew that going without a piano would be the best for a while until I felt a greater sense of permanence. Pianos are no easy thing to worry about moving.

I had the opportunity to have the piano from our home in Montana, but it just wasn't a good time in my life to take it on. Kim has it, and I'm glad that she can use it and get such joy out of it. It's a decent piano for how much use and abuse it has had.

I mention this piano of my childhood because it is the one I grew up with, and I certainly have a soft spot in my heart for it. It's a Kawai brand, and perhaps that is part of what led to the piano you see above.

When Enoch and I moved into our house last summer, I finally knew we were in a place with room and permanence for a piano. But because I was having a baby, and we were waiting on our tax refund for buying a new home, it wasn't really the time to be looking. But every so often I would check on Craigslist just to see the offerings. At one point about 6 months ago, I actually went to look at a piano off Craigslist because I thought it looked promising. It wasn't. So the search continued here and there.

When our tax refund finally came through, I knew it was time to get serious, but I was busy with work and house and other random things, so I wasn't looking all that hard. Then last week I randomly jumped on CL and found three pianos that showed promise! I made some contacts, and the baby grand Kawai was the first I was able to make arrangements with to see. It was like serendipity really. Magical.

The girl who was selling it, is in the process of scaling down her life due to some health issues that will require her to live with her parents for a while. So she needed to be far more mobile, and a piano doesn't help with that. When I went to her condo to check it out, I ended up staying for an hour and chatting with her and her mother. Such delightful people, and they have owned the piano for over 30 years.

I tell this story because I love the stories that pianos carry with them. This Kawai baby grand piano was originally bought by the Minneapolis Symphony in 1975. It was used for a season by them, and then the family I bought it from, bought it. The mother and the daughter played. The daughter mostly used it for music composition because she plays by ear. The daughter is who I bought it from. They have found much joy through this piano, so it has been well cared for and gently used.

It has a great sound, feel, and touch, and will sound even better once I get it tuned in a few weeks. (Did you realize that pianos need some time to settle into new environments, so tuning them right away is not a good idea?) It was like Christmas around here yesterday, I tell you. I played and played, and Asher loved toddling around by the piano and getting his fingers on it as well.

I think Enoch also has begun to see the difference this will make in our home. When I told him last week that I had found the piano I wanted, he instantly played the skeptic, and started asking questions about negotiating for it, finding out if it had been appraised, was it really in good condition, etc. I was horrified by his reaction. I had such a good feeling and experience with this piano, and so much of what music is about is feeling and experience. But I have come to realize that these are things that Enoch is unfamiliar with because he didn't grow up with a lot of music in his home, and there was no piano in his front room that got played a lot. I had to explain to Enoch that this piano really was priceless to its owner, so negotiating may not be the best route and that he needed to trust me. Once he could see how strongly I felt, he softened and went to work finding a piano mover. By the way, we found a great one, if you are ever in the market. ;)

Plus, Enoch now feels like with such a beautiful instrument in our home, he'd like to learn to play, so I'll be purchasing some books to help him get started, and I guess I will be his teacher. ;) I love that he wants to challenge himself in this way.

Welcome to the family, girl! I've waited long and with patience for you to come into our lives. Now that you're here, every minute of waiting has been worth it. :)