Play Me a Song

Big E and I are often called upon by friends of ours to help 

with salvaging items from our town's history.  

There was the time we helped move a large built in cabinet, stairs, doors 

and a truck bed load of wainscoting from the old fire house and public school (that post here).  

And the time we helped remove transom windows, light fixtures, 

doors and even cut out an entire entryway 

in the old parochial school at the Catholic Church.

Most recently, we were asked to help move an old, large grandfather clock.

Piece of cake.

No, really, it was, in the world of salvaging Littlestown history,

pretty easy.

(Sorry, I took no photos of the clock. It's gorgeous though, trust me)

While helping to package clock parts for the move, one of our friends asked,

"Hey, you guys wouldn't want an old player piano would you? 

It's just going to get chopped up and thrown away."

Big E's head lifted.

I said no.

Big E went with the home owner and looked at the piano.

I looked at the piano.

I said no.

Our friend reminded us it was going to get chopped up.

Big E said how he didn't want it to get chopped up.

I'm pretty sure you see where exactly this is going.

I gave in, especially after researching the piano and learning it was something that

very well could have been in our own house back in the day.

(meaning a player piano, not this specific one).

This is the photo from the Weaver Piano and Organ Company catalog  in York, PA

that shows the exact same type of player piano we would be owning.

Provided we could figure out how to move it.

There is a reason why you can find many free pianos around.

They weigh 800 pounds or more and aren't easy to move.

 I actually lucked out and missed the whole piano moving process

because Big E wanted to surprise me with a piano in the house when 

I got home from my weekend away.

This was most likely good for everyone since my anxiety is often problematic.

 Our friends managed to assemble 

a big group of people to help with the moving.

Thankfully, they had a truck with a lift gate,

which made the process a little easier.

Currently, the piano is residing in the laundry room.

Eventually, it will live in the dining room,

but it'll take some dining room demo and remodeling 

before the piano will fit in the room.

Not a drastic remodel really, just reconfiguring a plumbing closet

that was not original to the house so the hutch can move to that wall,

and the piano will have a place of honor.

An added bonus was finding the business card of the gentleman who used to tune the piano.

Big E called, and the man was alive and remembered the family who owned the piano.

He was able to check his piano book, and it was determined that the piano was

built in 1923-24.

The piano, of course, needs some work. 

It is horribly out of tune and while all the player mechanisms work,

the bellows aren't pumping to produce the air needed to play the roll of music.

We have leads on 2 people in the area who work on player pianos,

and we hope to get one out to look at it soon.

It's also obvious that the piano was painted.

(why do people DO that??!)

Luckily, I should be able to strip the paint off to uncover the original wood veneer.

There was also some damage to the wood veneer in the move,

but I know of people in the area that also repair that sort of thing.

Along with the piano we also received 2 boxes full of music rolls, 

so once we get it working we'll be able to play it.

I'd love to have it in place for Christmas.

Granted, I only saw 1 Christmas song in the boxes,

so everyone would listen to Silent Night over and over again.

I hear there are some other potential salvaging missions in the works-

can't wait.

The Mailbox

This was my mailbox.

I always forget to take photos at the very start of a project, 

so this photo was taken just after I removed the offensive object from my house.

The Day of the Dead duct tape really adds a little somethin-somethin.

The tape was actually placed there to keep the mail man from

putting the mail in an open area in the back that

wasn't large enough to fit your hand into.

I really hated this mailbox.

This is the new improved mailbox that I just picked up

and installed myself.

(please look past the road grime staining the siding,

it won't come off so we're painting the house house in the future)

It's definitely more aesthetically pleasing, and

it's close enough to turn of the century style mailboxes to appease me.

I found similar mailboxes online for about $50,

which was why I was still living with the ugly plastic monstrosity.

This piece I found by accident while checking out

a turn of the century pie safe on a site online.

The store is called James and Jess House of Goods in Waynesboro, PA.

I learned this mailbox was only $21.

So I planned a short hike on the Appalachian Trail with a stop in Waynesboro to check out the store.

The mailbox is great.  Not an antique,

but I like it and it works.

The store is fantastic.

Full of odds and ends, some antique some not,

but all very cool.

Not only did I grab the mailbox, but I grabbed a rooster hook for the kitchen

and a small antique lantern that I have in mind for a project.

And I'm still thinking of the pie safe

that I'd like to use in the new bathroom as a cabinet for towels and such.

(but really there still aren't complete walls or a toilet in the bathroom so I'm not really ready for a piece like that).

So if you're around the area, 

I recommend checking out the store.

Even my mom and sister left with stuff.

Interesting Finds

When you're rooting around a hundred year old house, you're bound to find some interesting items.  Because our house hasn't seen any renovations since about 1972, we find some neat things.  Or rather, I find neat things, my husband doesn't always agree with how "neat" my finds really are.  For example, I came across this old Black Flag insect sprayer in a wood bin I asked to keep.  My husband said it was trash and he was throwing it away.  I said I was cleaning it up and displaying it in the laundry/mudroom.  Gives credence to the whole "one mans trash is another woman's treasure".
 

  Last night, the hubby and I despite saying we were tired and going straight to bed when we got home) ended up working on the doorways into the living room and kitchen.  Originally there were doors on each room off the hallway.  The doors are gone and we wanted the doorways to be slightly wider so we removed the 1x4 along the inside of each entryway. When my husband pulled off the first piece, I noticed the nails looked a little funky.  Upon closer inspection, I realized they were nails made by a blacksmith.  Pretty awesome.  Even the hubby was excited about this find.

                                             

Behind the wood we pulled off, we found ancient math.  You know, the math they did where 1,220 + 240= 1,460  and no little drawings were needed to figure it out.  There were no paragraphs needed to explain the little pictures used to answer the problem either.  It was just math. (In case you're wondering, I hate common core math).  Part of me hates the idea of covering this up, because in a few years, no one will remember what simple math looked like.

In all my cleaning and pulling down of ceilings, I've also found some newspapers from August 1960.  There is mention of JFK when he was a Senator and a half page ad from the electric company telling people how wonderful it is to have a house run entirely on electricity (it even has examples of local families and the amount they pay a month for electricity).  And late last night while working on smoothing the trim in the hallway, I discovered that there was once scrollwork on the steps similar to what I found along the top of the stairs.  I'm hoping I can find the pattern through the paint and be able to redo the scrollwork by painting, but it wasn't as easy to see on the steps downstairs as it was on the area by the upstairs hallway.
I'm sure there will be a ton of other things we come across.  I'm hoping for some money in the walls or something along those lines.