Piano Bench Refinish

Look below! That's my beautiful piano bench... albeit, somewhat ruined. That's my exquisite Kara-dog behind it too, making sure the picture is aesthetically pleasing since the bench is so ugly. That appears to be some kind of super glue spots (not dog snot!) and scrapes and other unmentionable things on it. What paint or stain was on it is now abandoning ship. You can kindof see the pretty legs on it though. It's a very fancy ornate little bench.



I went to Home Depot and got some felt pads for the bottom of the legs (haven't put them on yet) and then decided... well, refinishing a piano is a BIG job and I don't want to get 1/3 of the way through it and give up. Lets see how difficult it will be to refinish a piano BENCH instead! Oh, and look, I have one handy that needs it! How convenient is that? So I did a little research into how I would theoretically want to refinish the piano should I ever undertake that particular endeavor. Looks like French Polish / Shellac is the way to go. Yup, no easy way to do it, lots of hard work and elbow grease, and time. PERFECT! I'll just do the top of the bench, so I have a nice place to sit and if I hate the work or if I suck at it, at least I have a nice bench (top) out of the deal.



I sanded (and sanded, and slept and then sanded some more the next day), and I stained it ebony black. Then I sat back and said, "GAWD, if this was a whole piano I'd move away!" Not really, I was feeling rather proud of myself at that point. The top of the bench felt like satin! Anyway, sanding and staining and sanding some more and staining some more and rubbing and buffing and dang my arms hurt!



I got my shellac supplies and put the first coat on. Look how pretty it is! Now only 15-20 more coats and it should look great. There's some of my supplies below. Not really that interesting, but shared anyway.



Here (below) is the picture of it as of yesterday afternoon when I quit working on it out of necessity. I had a billion other things to do. But look, this is somewhere around 8-10 coats of shellac. It's getting there! You can see my reflection, fairly clearly!

Now, I have already learned some things. First: get a paint stripper, because sanding paint off sucks. Buy a nice expensive paint stripper too, don't go the cheap route. (My Mom says you -always- have to spend the big bucks to get a good stripper! ha ha ha) You will have so much sanding to do anyway that you'll still get your exercise and then some.

Second: I sanded and was very careful about getting everything glass-smooth with an extremely fine grade of wet/dry sandpaper... but I still have areas that absorbed the shellac & show grain. Next time I will use something called pummice to fill the grain after my first coat of shellac. I didn't read about that until I was already past the first coat.

Third: Shellac is extremely forgiving and easy to repair. Not just if you mess up while doing it but also if you or a kid or dog does something to it in the future. That is one of the main reasons I chose to French Polish rather than doing something easier. That, and I am completely infatuated with "old fashioned" things! Plus, shellac is a renewable resource. Just can't beat all that!

I'm going to get some paint stripper in the next few days. It seems I have a lot of projects that I can use it on. My outdoor metal chair is coming along quite nicely, and I've got a cabinet/hutch that's all different colors that desperately needs me to choose one and run with it! And the rest of this bench needs to be finished too, of course. Now, I used an ebony stain and an amber colored shellac, but the jury is still out on whether or not I like the color it has become. I was hoping for more of a warm black than a warm orange... but it's still not too late to re-do it. Even though I have a bazillion "coats" of the stuff on it already, it's really only a very thin layer that can be easily removed.

Look What I Bought!

I found this amazing place online, http://nashvillepianorescue.com , while looking for a piano tuner. Yes, sometimes the cart DOES come before the horse. Ok, ok, full story; I found a similar piano at Habitat for Humanity Homestore for $150 and I wanted to get a tuner out to look at it ASAP. Looking for the tuner brought me to the website where I could get a guarantee and a free delivery on a piano of my choice for around the same price! Of course I ran right out there, met Jerrold who runs the place, and selected a couple of pianos that tickled my fancy. Jerrold had the tuner-guy take a look at them both and I came back with a check after he said they would both hold a tune.

Here above is my baby in the warehouse, dusty and hidden like a treasure waiting to be found. The picture looks nice and bright but the spot where she was really wasn't. I was surprised when I got home & saw the pictures. Below is a detail of the scrollwork on the front. That beautiful cherry color was definitely not evident to me at the time. In fact, even now that it's home it's still a little darker than that to the naked eye.

Here she is (below) in my living room. I had to move book cases to get her in, now I have even MORE stuff I don't have room for upstairs. Thank GOD the rebuild on the downstairs room is going really really well.

Below is what she looks like with her "clothes" off. This was minutes after the delivery happened and Jerrold had left. I was cleaning, and considering how difficult it would be to re-do her finish, and I just started unscrewing things to find out what could & couldn't be done! I'm like that though... Jerrold said it was definitely within a beginner's grasp to re-do the finish on their own piano. It's not like it's really worth a bundle of $ or anything, my love and $250 is all!



He also let me pick out a bench to go with it. I selected a lovely one with ornate legs and a terrible ruined finish. My next post will be of that project. It's really a great piano, only slightly out of tune - and not too painfully at that. I've been very happy already. Toward the end of the month, the tuner will come out to my home for my first tuning (which was included in the purchase price, along with delivery). I'm so excited, I could do the dance all over again just thinking about my good fortune!

Some Random Pictures to Share

Driving home from work the other day, after what I thought was a very normal rain shower, I noticed this. Several trees down in front of Andrew Jackson Elementary School on Shute Ln. This one was down by the corner near OHB, but farther down where there's a chain link fence around the kids' park area there was another tree down right over the fence and there was a lot of wood debris in piles along the entrance way like someone had already cleared a lot of it out. Strangeness!



This past Saturday I bought the kids a frosty cool drink after they helped me haul some stuff off to the dump. When we got back home, one of the boys left their drink to condensate on the rock wall near my garden. When I was walking past I noticed that a beautiful dragonfly had landed on the straw for a sip of water. It let me get close enough to take this picture then it flew off.



Shannie & I went to a dinner at a local winery recently. We had delish crawfish foods and a wine tasting & I brought home a tasty bottle of wine as a souvenir. The place was really magical, beautiful, and the people delightful and friendly. It's out in Columbia, TN - Amber Falls Winery. If anyone likes wine, please please please make the trip out to see this place. The wine is great, the scenery is amazing and the whole place is without compare.



Speaking of magical, PJ and I attended his friend Phillip's wedding, and it was magnificent. I will have to find a picture or two to share of it here. You just wouldn't believe! I also managed to dress in her colors and looked vaguely like a decoration. One of our friends snapped this picture of us. We don't get a lot of pics together, this one is extra-special.



Finally, Kieffer graduated from Middle School. Next school year he will be in High School. He's halfway there! PJ, Keegan and I drove up to KY to see him graduate. After the ceremony & festivities at the school, we took my Mom with us out to eat at the only buffet in town, a chinese restaurant. It was great. On the way out, the boys asked for 50 cents for the gumball/toy machines. Strangely, the one machine they picked had disguise mustaches in it! I guess it's a KY thing... Kieffer got the Hitler, and Keegan got the Pancho Villa. These kids never fail to delight me. Can life get much better?

Michael on the Farm

My Mom, getting hay for the horses - one of her chickens supervising.


Michael playing with Harry-the-raccoon.



All of us at the swimming hole! Michael, Kieffer, Keegan, Me, Andie, & my niece Ally. We only saw two snakes that day, it was a success.



The boys found an egg hiding in the hay pile.



They egg-hiding hay pile in question...



Michael riding his very first horse, this is "Shadow", the cornerstone stallion in my Dad's breeding program.



Shadow again.



Shadow looks like a model horse, he's just stunning. Look how calm Michael looks too!



Michael & Kieffer getting ready to help my Mother give the horses hay.



The barn we saw along the way decorated on two sides with KY license plates. Very creative.

New Project!

No, not knitting... I'm stripping the paint off some old metal chairs my brother gave me a couple years ago. They will be repainted a wonderful color & they will become part of my outdoor set once they're refurbished. We are using his power drill and some wire wheels. I started the chair Sunday night and Keegan has put a few hours in Monday & today. We're not making a lot of progress but I have to admit that it's more than a little addictive using the power drill to remove the FOUR layers of thick paint on these chairs. From the outside, down to metal, the layers are black, white, robin's egg blue, & teal blue. There is also some small degree of rust which I thought would be a LOT worse once I got going but it's not worse than surface discoloration so far.



I was pretty sure the rust was the cause of most of the bubbles and disfigured patterning, but it turns out it's the layers of misbegotten paint forming warped bumps. Once you get down to the metal there's no rust pockets and the design is very delineated. I think once we get this tedious paint removal done with, the chairs will turn out lovely. Above is the before picture of one. Below is the one Keegan is working on now.



That's Sunday evening when he started. Now most of the bottom is done and we're getting ready to move onto a new part of the chair. It's very slow going, but it's addictive work. I'm worried about Scot's drill overheating or breaking from the hours of constant use. I hope he's in a forgiving mood if it happens. :)



Here's the seat bottom as of tonight, at bedtime. I really want to work on it some more myself, but I only got a few minutes in before we had to do other stuff. I'm eager to go to a local hardware store & see if I can't find some more wire wheels too. Something to get into the little crevices and corners.

I'm getting excited about the color possibilities now too. I think I've settled on a yellowy-cream color for them, with details hand-painted in corals & greens but I'm not 100% sure. If you've got any ideas, be sure to share them with me. I personally love how they remind me of Dresden Plate quilts and a white and blue color scheme isn't entirely ruled-out either!




-Regan-

(By the way, the set I have is a bounce-chair and a rocker. Both appear to be in fantastic condition now that I've started removing the paint. This is a set that was made sometime between the 1930's - 1950's and it's in a very rare "Piecrust" pattern. That's an FYI in case you're interested in old stuff like I am.)

First Rebuild Project, COMPLETED!

So today I dragged PJ & Kieffer to both the Habitat Homestores to look at what was there. We found a perfect man-room door! Our fabulous neighbor Carl gave us advice on measuring & damned if he wasn't right! We finagled and improvised and managed to get it hung so now we can keep raccoons and stray dogs out of our downstairs! I feel like proper-folk now. Not to mention, I think this is a much prettier door than the one we originally had.



Unfortunately, my darling DH hasn't yet considered that the man-cave needs to be dark and dungeonish to facilitate the playing of video games & watching of movies during the daytime. I haven't offered that little fact up to him, either. I think this is a beautiful door and it's the one I would have picked for sure. It'll let the dogs look outside without having to stand up on the door!

Next step, we'll have to get a prettier door knob & bolt lock for it.

Also, I have a product endorsement! I have these lovely laminate floors in my home. But I'm not the most attentive housekeeper, I'm not going to sweep twice a day and I have dogs that run across my floor & scratch it up & we wear shoes inside and very soon your floors start looking scratched & worn & nothing really makes them SHINE again even when they're perfectly clean.

It's been driving me crazy! I've tried all kinds of cleaning products, from vinegar water of all temps (on a damp mop) to specialized wood floor cleaners - all with the same results. Nothing made them shiny again!

So my last trip to Wal-Mart I picked up an inexpensive green bottle of something called "Weiman Floor Polish". It was around $5 and is self-touted as eco-friendly and safe for wood, laminate, and tile floors.

It freaking worked!!!!!!!!!!! Look at the before picture below. Clean but dingy.



Then the area I slicked-down with the polish... do you know how hard it is to get a picture of a shiny surface? Too many tries, let me tell you.



The shine is what it looks like wet AND dry! Look, my toes are on it and it's perfectly dry and it looks like glass! I'm so freaking happy I could do the dance. I am going to run back to Wal-Mart and buy all they have of this stuff. A lifetime supply!



Hope y'all have a great weekend, I'm off to go to a friend's wedding in Bowling Green.

Playing Catch-Up!

First-off, I have done a lot of planting in my yard lately. I try to get some stuff done every year with the ultimate goal of having one of those pretty yards that you drive past just a little slower on your way through the neighborhood.

There are several of those around my block, I'll try to get some pictures of my favorites to show y'all! I wanna be in that club.

Bonny got me 3 blueberry bushes and my Mom gave me one too. With help from the husbeast and the Kieffer I got them all planted! (Before they died in the pots waiting for me to decide where to put them) Now, I had all four of these before the flood hit so they've all been waiting a VERY long time for their forever-homes! There are four different kinds, all will berry-out in different months so in a few years when the bushes are huge I will have a metric goat-ton of blueberries that I'll be desperately trying to give away before they rot.



Then I took a quick trip around town to all my favorite nurseries & home superstore garden centers & picked up a few great deals. Below is a planter with a yellow-flowered climber that will grow up (hopefully) my back porch hand rail. It's called Thumbergia and the dark centers of its flowers are really deep purple that looks almost brown. It's planted with purple salvia and purple petunias from my Mom and a purple iris-thing from my neighbor Carl which actually may be a pink gladiolus - his are blooming now and they're magnificent. I'll transplant it somewhere more permanent this fall so it doesn't die in the freeze.



Below are some more of my lucky purchases. I got two beautiful asiatic lilies; a coral & cream color & a bright yellow, a silver mounding artemisia (sp?) and a knock-out rose that I got for TWO DOLLARS! Yup, it had fallen out of its pot and they were going to throw it away. I bought it instead. They normally run somewhere between $15 - $25 for this size bush.




I've also been knitting. I haven't quite got the knitting mojo back, but I'm trudging along & trying to keep interested. Y'know, it's hard for me to knit in spring when the gardening bug takes over what's left of my mind & compels me to do crazy things like spend money we don't have on plants we can't eat...

Below are two socks from one ball of yarn knitted toe-up on one long addi lace needle. Yes, the socks don't look like they come from one ball but it's a watermelon-colored yarn with really long color bands and very soon they will start looking like they're related! I'll post more pictures as the garden and the knitting grow.




Just for updates & giggles, we did finally receive (yesterday) 1/2 our flood insurance check from Bank of America. They only held onto it for a month, collecting interest, prior to kindly giving us half. So we'll be starting to rebuild soon! And as an added benefit I'll also be able to do laundry again too.

I hate Bank of America, I hate them so much it's like a dark physical pain in my soul. I hope someone goes postal and kills every BoA executive in some kind of slow fiery conflaguration that's so horrendous I will barely be able to concieve of the carnage when watching it later on the news. If you're considering it, have faith that I will come to your trial and support you with signs and sincere love. BoA is the devil. Only barely more evil than Regions and only because Regions hides their evilness behind a very thin veil of civility. VERY thin!

The rest of you, have a wonderful & happy day. And keep blogging! I love to read about what's going on in your lives.