It’s gotten to the point in our almost-ten year marriage where anytime my husband hears me say, “hey babe- come look at this,” he knows he’s in for an entire afternoon of hair-brainedly (that’s a word, yes?) chasing down something I found on Craigslist.
Once it was a SINGLE OWNER, absolutely pristine, 100-year old Werner piano, WITH THE ORIGINAL CLAWFOOTED STOOL, listed for a hundred bucks. It was 45-minutes away in Rock Hill, SC — this was when we were living in Charlotte, NC. Did we have a truck? Nope. Did we have someone to help lift it? Nope. Did we even have a trailer hitch? No way. But we DID have the hundred bucks and a fun afternoon procuring said trailer hitch and renting a uhaul. We somehow, miraculously, managed to get it out of the historic Rock Hill home, down the concrete steps, and onto the trailer bed.
No joke, this piano is easily the same weight as a newborn elephant. We drove it home, in the rain, with me sitting backwards watching out the back window, making husband stop every few miles to make sure the straps were secure. I’m really fun to be around when antiques are involved.
Other Craigslist adventures have included the time someone asked me to pay for something with a $20 and a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, the time our eternal souls were threatened because our *free* First Come, First Serve pile of firewood had already been picked up, and yesterday, when I managed to find a stained glass window the exact size as the opening above our laundry room door and ended up standing in the Home Depot parking lot in Collinsville, IL listening to Mr. Window Guy explain the hazards of lead paint. For a long time.
Thanks, dude. Our house is upwards of 130 years old. Strangers to the threat of lead paint we are not.
We still have to frame out the window and touch up the paint… it’s old, it’s a little bit broken, but it still works just fine. Kind of a metaphor for life. 🙂
We prepped the space by removing some older screws, cleaning the frame, and then sanding down some of the existing trim to make it fit just exactly right.
You can tell this was an existing exterior window. One pane is broken… and so grabbing it from the back of Mr. Window Guy’s truck was kind of like me white-glove handling The Declaration of Independence. If the Declaration of Independence only cost $25 and lived in the back of some dude’s truck.
Like I said, it still needs to be framed in just a little bit, and freshened up with some paint… but it just instantly adds so much to the space in our kitchen. It is my joy in life to continue bringing this house back to its former, Victorian glory.
Until my next Craigslist find,
The Brick and Maple Family <3
One Response
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