Surplus to requirements: One piano

We bought a second-hand piano about six years ago, because it was extremely cheap and we had the money. We got a piano tuner to look at it a while ago, and after we'd booked him in at full tuning-the-piano cost he said, in essence, "It's not possible to repair that kind of piano, there's no-one in Europe doing it any more, and incidentally I have a piano here you might like to buy," so we ignored him. And this morning I got the piano repair guy around the corner ot come and look at it, and he said "No charge to come and look," first off, and then when he looked he said "If it's of great sentimental value it can be repaired, but the first stage would be £2000 and it would need more work after that too, but isn't it lovely?"

So we need to get rid of it. I'm quite sad, because the wood is nice, and some of the woodwork is lovely, and if I had an infinite amount of space I'd keep it just because the case is nice, but there you go.

I'm thinking of offering it up on Freecycle in case anyone wants the case as a stage-prop or the wood for almost anything, because the only thing the piano guy could suggest was getting the council to take it to landfill. The marquetry panel in the front would make a very pretty table. The hinged lid on the top would make a couple of lovely shelves. All the fiddly bits would make beautiful picture frames.

I wonder is it really walnut?

Baby Seri

Last year, around the time of DWCon, we raised half of the money for a wheelchair for Baby Seraphina. She couldn't get it on the NHS because they don't fund them for children that age. And part of the reason is this: She already needs a new one.

If you do Causes on Facebook, the link is this: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/304589?m=3f1cca43