The Case Of The Stinky Piano... Two many Pianos

    For a number of years my husband wanted a piano.  I had no objections to this, I don't play, but I would like the kids to learn.  I want to raise well rounded kids, and I feel like the arts are a big part of that (you notice that you never hear me singing praises for anything physical).  My cousin called me two years ago and asked if we would like to buy their piano.  I jumped at it, especially since they were kind enough to accept a ridiculous payment plan.  We found ourselves with a little piano.

    More times than I would care to have heard, I would hear my kids thumping on the piano, I mean playing the piano.  Christopher taught Grace how to play.  It was beautiful to see the two of them sitting head to head while my husbands huge hands directed Grace's small hands onto the correct keys.  Often I would come home from being out with the kids and find that Christopher had come home before us.  There he would be at the piano, a serene look on his face as he played.  That little piano fit perfectly into our home, not just in the case of space, but in the case of making our house a home.

    Last year our next door neighbour became very ill.  Her daughter had to place her in a nursing home.  That meant we would have a new neighbour.  One day when her daughter was there cleaning up her Mom's house she asked if we would be interested in purchasing her Mom's full sized piano.  Christopher's eyes became large.  He wanted that piano!  I did not!  I liked our little piano.  It fit it's little space perfectly.  Christopher began to harass, I mean explain why the large piano was better.  "There is no point in the kids learning to play a piano that did not have all of the keys!"  That was his first argument. "But I like our little piano".  There was no point, I knew it was all over, we would have the full sized piano.  I decided to play my last card, "If we can sell our piano, we can buy Pat's".  Agreed.  

Thankfully my stipulation proved a great bargaining chip for me.  I had no idea how difficult it is to sell a piano.  I was not sad about not selling our piano, or getting a much bigger one that would not fit into our tiny little house.  I was selling the piano for what we had paid for it, seems simple.  

    Everyone is talking about kijji.ca.  It's a free site that allows you to list items that you would like to sell.  It's pretty easy to set up.  The only thing we had close to an offer was someone who offered us less than half of what we were asking, and wanted delivery.  That was a NO, but perhaps I acted to quickly with my NO.  A year later, we still had my little adorable piano.  It looked like that was how it was going to stay, oh and I like that.  It allowed me to come out smelling like roses!  I was still the awesome wife who begrudgingly agreed to the new, much larger piano.  It was not my fault if people don't want to buy small adorable pianos.

    Last week our old neigbour's daughter was at the house.  She was finishing up the last bit of cleaning before they put the house up for sale.  She thanked me for keeping an eye on the house, and for being such a great neighbour to her mom.  I was humble, and told her that's just what neighbours did, no big deal.  It was around that time that my beautiful stroke of luck failed me.  "I know that you guys were wanting to buy the piano, but you had to sell yours first.  We would really like you to have it.  I know a local lady who would take your smaller piano, like a trade." she said.  My plan lay there on the floor, dead.  "Oh that is so kind of you, are you sure?"(please say no, please say no).  "It will just be nice to see Mom's piano being used!"  When Christopher came home he was over the top delighted, I was not!

    The big day came.  Christopher asked his bosses to help him move the piano.  I took the kids out to the park so that they would not be in the way (o.k. the truth is that my house was not as clean as it should have been to have Christopher's bosses see it.  It just pretended to be a nice lady and take the kids out so as to avoid embarrassment).  I came home from the park with three happy little kids, only to discover two pianos in my tiny living room, one of which stunk very, very much.  There really are no words to describe how bad the new piano stinks.  The closest I can come is take an antique that has been dosed in nicotine, and old urine, and a heavy dose of mildew... yup it smells that good!  So apparently the other lady had not been consulted, and by no way shape or form did she want our piano.  So now I have a piano that smells so much that it permeates through the entire house, leaving the living room uninhabitable.  I have a second adorable piano, that is on the other wall.  The kid's will only play the non-stinky piano.

    I poured vinegar into one cup and baking soda into another cup and placed them on top of the piano. I then took an entire box of dryer sheets and covered every spot of the piano with them.  The effect.... NONE!  Now I have to start the whole stupid Kijjii thing all over again!  Soooooo if anyone knows how to de-stink a piano, I could really use your help.  Also, if anyone is looking for a slightly used husband, he and the piano are available.