December 16, 2008
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Something I’m anxious to do is redo the bedroom.
For years I spent a fair amount of time back there reading, or using Mom’s old laptop she’d given me. Dmitry and I used to hang out on the bed to read, play cards, etc.
Then two or three years ago I began staying in the living room, making the other recliner my own. Now I am convinced it was the LORD chasing me out there to spend more time with Don prior to his death, for which I’m enormously grateful.
However, Don’s gone to glory and I’m feeling the need to go back to my roots, as it were. But with some changes. First, I no longer need a king-size bed, and it quit being comfortable awhile back, so it needs to go. I’d been hoping to replace it with a twin adjustable bed, but those are pricey. This morning I remembered a leather chaise I’d admired at JCPenney, and according to the store’s web site, it’s on sale:
lI’ve always liked chaise lounges, and ISTM this would give the same sitting up/knees raised position I was looking for in an adjustable bed for half the price. Plus it doesn’t have electric stuff to go awry. Or be played with by grandchildren.
So I think I’ll take a run out to JCPenney this afternoon – once the temps have warmed up and there’s no ice on the roads – to try it out.
Also on my list is a used upright piano. Don never wanted one but I rather did, and a keyboard simply isn’t the same thing. Surely TerraTelecom isn’t going to actually want the computer desk and chair it bought Don for his home office, so assuming they don’t, I’m going to keep them and make it my base of operations as regards bills, etc.
This way the boys can spend more time in the living room themselves, and not feel so restricted to their bedrooms. Not that Don and I didn’t urge them to join us, but there it is….they’re more comfortable when they can be out here without the parental unit(s).
Comments (10)
Ice on the roads? Wow. That sounds like something I’d say at 7 in the morning. This is the strangest year.
I know there are others who will disagree with me on quality, but you can go considerably cheaper on a new or used electronic piano than on a used upright that’s in any kind of decent shape, and then there is nearly zero upkeep — tuning and whatnot. (Are you sure you want an upright rather than a spinet? I thought your house was rather smallish, and even though they take up the same floor space, an upright fills the room and gives a more crowded feeling. BTDT.) Electronic pianos are so much better these days, though as I said I know there are those pianists who are down on them. I don’t know how particular you are about such things.
The chaise is gorgeous, but it looks like it would be slippery. Very Freudian, too! :tongue: Wish I could give you our piano– it’s a really nice one, but no one plays it.
So lying flat is not your thing, huh? lol I’d love one for relaxing in, but I think I’d get tired of not being able to lie further back if’n I wanted to. :sleepy:
Btw, that one pictured is gahjous!!
From a piano player…I own an electronic piano, and I can tell you right now, unless I’ve just come from playing a grand piano to playing my electronic, I can NOT tell the difference. Some people, who have a finely tuned and trained ear (Byron would be one) can tell and don’t like electronic, but for the average (and may I be so bold as to say, I’ve had some musical training and may even be above average musically) individual, it is indistinguishable from the “real” instrument. Much less expensive and someone already mentioned, zero upkeep. Get a Yamaha Clavinova, and you will be satisfied, I am confident.
I didn’t know the Yamaha CLP320 existed, but it looks magnificently spiffy! It also looks expensive, compared to the “fair condition” used uprights for $300-400 I’d been thinking of. :sigh:
Love that those digitals have pedals! No, what I’d been thinking of were the keyboards one purchases at Target or Wal-Mart.
I know why Anne wants an upright – we had one when we were growing up! I think it’ll be great! Let me know if you need John to help with a truck.
I have hated my digital. Instruments were made to be acoustic.
I’m with Gilda — I hate digital pianos. I mentioned it to our piano tuner and he said that I’m one of the few who can hear the difference in the sound — most people really can’t, so on the one hand I’d say go for the digital if that’s what you want it doesn’t bother you, but on the other hand, I’m an instrument snob and think people ought to have the Real Thing. :tongue: Something else to think about though… the tuner also said that he’s running into more and more churches that are going back to real pianos because parts for the digital ones eventually go obsolete, as with all electronic technology. Not so with an acoustic one.
And FWIW, you should be able to get a reasonably good piano for free — we’ve never bought one, but have always given away ours when we moved and gotten another free one when we arrived.
But you can get used digitals, too. You’re not going to find them by looking at sites that sell new stuff, but go to any large brick and mortar store that sells pianos and used instruments (and nearly all music stores sell used instruments), and they’ll probably have them. And there are likely to be some in the classifieds, also. So compare used digital to used acoustic before writing off digital as too expensive.
I understand why people prefer “real” over digital, but if it’s a choice between an acoustic in well-used condition that has to be tuned frequently and repaired occasionally, a digital, and no piano, I’d go with digital.
Kelly has been blessed with being gifted with pianos over the years, and I don’t want to take away from that, but BEWARE of free acoustic pianos. Some have little life left in them, and if you’re not a good judge of such things, you could wind up with a white elephant in your house that wasn’t worth the effort of getting it there and can’t be gotten rid of easily. BTDT. OTOH, I have a free one now that has been fine. But you have to be careful. Some people are looking to unload white elephants, while some people are just doing what Kelly did — giving away something usable that is no longer used or too much trouble to move. Our current one was the latter.