The cottage is already filled with Zelda & Yuri. The two grands and their component parts arranged in different spots take up about half of the available space in the cottage. Not to mention that in order to have enough room to make breakfast and/or sleep at night I need to put away whatever I'm working on plus all the tools. Ranger's been a little cramped for space as well -- he's been having to share his favorite table with Yuri. It's a bit of a Catch 22 -- there's (barely) enough room to work on the two instruments and not enough room to take on paid assignments.
This issue came to a head yesterday.
A vivacious, elderly lady called me a few days ago to look at her piano, as it turns out a 1919 Stultz & Co. old upright. When she called she said, "nothing works, and I'd like to have it fixed." And, when I looked at it yesterday she was right -- nothing works. Thirty keys are compromised for one reason or another, the tuning pins & strings are corroded, the hammers are actually concave from years of playing, it's horribly out of tune, and the list could go on. The case is in relatively good shape, as are the harp, pinblock, sound board and bridges. So, essentially you have a decent frame upon which to put a new instrument -- not much more. To fix it would cost more than the instrument will ever be worth.
I explained this to Mrs. Ford and asked "why do you want this piano repaired?" Her reply was "it just needs to be right. Besides my daughter comes once or twice a year, and she plays." I guess my look must have been a little more than incredulous as she chuckled, "look I'm 87. I've got some money and I'd just like to have it working. So just tell me how much it'll cost to put it back together."
Then it struck me 'this is another gift'. The money is irrelevant to her, it's about leaving a legacy of beauty for her children. So, I'm going to put together a very, very fairly priced proposal for her, then see if she wishes to go forward.
If she does, it would mean some signficant start-up income for me, not to mention it would give me the opportunity to thoroughly rework an old upright in addition to the two grands. There are enough diferences between a grand & an upright to make it another important part of my learning curve. But, it did bring to a head the space issue. As it stands currently, I don't have room in the cottage and so far I haven't found a reasonable place to rent where I could create a workshop.
Usually when obstacles like this come up the universe is telling you something. So after I left her yesterday, I went to a friend's house to restring a missing bass string. I explained to Sheri about the lady's insistence on fixing the piano; but that it didn't matter as I wouldn't be able to take the job for lack of space. She just looked at me and said "Mrs. Ford deserves to have a beautiful instrument in her life. You'll find a way."
When I came back to the cottage I started looking at the space differently, then started re-arranging everything. Tools came up front where I could get at them more easily. My landlady's son came by. We talked about moving out some of the furniture when he comes back in December, which would leave me room for a work bench. For now, the universe is telling me 'make do with the resources you have and build the business on a more solid financial foundation.' By simply removing furniture he can use at one of their other properties, I can make room for the business here and still have a comfortable place to live. For now, it's enough. I just needed to see the space differently.
On a totally different topic, there has been a lot happening with two other aspects of the developing business in the last couple of weeks.
Yuri's keys are now all functional and, with one exception, perfectly balanced. Even the A#86 that was eaten through with termites (fortunately they focused primarily on the key frame and munched their way through only one of the keys) has been repaired. Next steps are to start removing the old corroded tuning pins and piano wires. I've been repairing some other instruments so I have some practical experience with restringing now. I'm devouring the 'bible' on restringing -- Travis' A Guide to Restringing so am at the point where I think I'm ready to take on Yuri's total restringing job.
On the tuning front, I've been slowly taking on more clients. Still trying to limit myself somewhat until I get myself more organized. The latest was a preconcert tuning for a professional ensemble. Though my aural tunings have been (with one exception) very good, I couldn't take a chance on blowing the tuning for a concert. So I drained my last savings and bought a Sanderson Accu-Tuner IV (SAT IV) which arrived several days in advance of the concert tuning. I love it!!!
Unlike most machines which simply provide pitch verification on a particular note, the SAT IV is designed to hear the harmonics throughout the instrument so that when you're setting the temperament, it's hearing how in tune the piano is with itself as well as conventional pitch. It then makes the subtle adjustments of a few cents in either direction to account for the inharmonicity of the particular instrument. As a consequence, it's helping me to speed up my tuning time as I'm now not spending an hour running tests on my aural work. That alone is worth the money; but also -- as a confidence builder -- it's confirmed with the pianos I've done previously that my aural work was accurate. Whew!!! Maybe there really is a career here after all.
The next picture has nothing to do with anything except Ranger hates storms. And we've been having quite a few lately. This is where I've been finding him -- if I can find him at all. I really don't know how such a large cat can make himself small enough to fit into this space.
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