About Me

Llantwit Major, Wales, United Kingdom
I am mother, librarian, avid reader, sf fan, writer (unpubished), singer(amateur), animal lover, needlewoman.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Piano moving

We moved pianos last night.

The guy who is buying our piano didn't turn up so we have put our piano into the garage until wednesday when he is supposed to collect it.

We then went to B's house at College to move the boudoir grand This is a very small grand piano which is a bit contradictory as a definition, but still. It is about 4ft square. Moving a grand piano is much more complicated than an upright. The upright - if you have a piano trolley - is fairly straightforward because you tilt up one end, shove the piano trolley under it and move it around on the trolley. The piano trolley is a steel trolley about 1 meter long by 33cm wide on 4 very strong and bouncy wheels, designed to move pianos it cost over £400. The grand involves taking off the lid, taking off the music rest, taking off the pedals, then you have to take one leg off. We propped it up on a stool, and then on two metal boxes so it was tilted towards the floor. The you have to put it onto the trolley on its side, making sure you don't put too much strain on the other legs because you don't want to break them.

That done, we wheeled it out of the house, using makeshift ramps on the step, and then loaded it into Nic's horsebox. It was surprisingly easy. There were 4 of us doing it, but only 3 doing most of it as Nic was bringing the box. Adam, Brian and I were doing most of it. We tied it up to the inside of the box and Brian went with it - getting the horse experience of being in the box.

When we got home we got it off the van and into the house, then had to put the legs back on!

After that we had the -where are we going to put it - game. We tried one place, then another, then moved the sofas to see what they looked like there, then moved it again, moved the sofas, and so on until we finally decided on the best location. The piano does have castors but they aren't much use on carpet so Brian, Adam and I were taking a chunk of the weight every time we moved it so the legs didn't fall off.

We have now put the sofas and piano in place, but need to relocate the tv and the hi-fi. Both of which involve playing with wires.

However I won't be doing that tonight because we are going out for dinner. Very nice indeed.

2 comments:

oreneta said...

Sounds utterly exhausting. Where did you go for dinner in the end? Hope it was good, you all earned it.

Boo and Trev said...

That reminds me of a pg tips add with the chimps. "Do you know the piano's on myfoot, Dad?" "No but you hum it and I'll pick up the tune"
Ah halcyon days!