And it begins....

I have officially begun THE project.  It's taken me a while just to get motivated enough to get started on the piano.  I'm excited knowing what it will look like when it's finished, but I can't say I'm exactly jumping out of my chair to take on all the work ahead of me.  Anyway, the fun has started, so no turning back now!

The particular piano I'm working on is a Wurlitzer 1203.  I started out by removing the the spoolbox along with the sliding panels that cover it, the music shelf/fall board, the bottom panel,  the keyblocks, the keys and the two front legs.

I've discovered that old pianos are similar to a grandmother's attic.  You never know what you'll find in there!  Here are some of the things I found:

mouse droppings,

an old mouse nest,

a 128mb SD card, lots of cobwebs, lots and lots and lots of dust, and about 34 cents in loose change.  I vacuumed everything out, and removed the lid last night.  I'm hoping to get this project done and out of the garage by the end of October (before it really starts getting COLD!).  If everything goes well, the piano will look something like this with a nice ivory satin finish:

Here we go!

Of KVM switches and things

I've been a bit busy the last couple of weeks switching jobs and doing various odd jobs around the house (fixing the sprinkler wiring... again!, ripping down the rickety, ghetto dog run in the backyard, mowing the lawn every other day... at least it feels like it!)  so I haven't exactly started the piano refinishing project yet.  I discovered a cool solution to a dilemma I had a few weeks ago, though.  It all started when I found an old desktop computer in my parents basement.  Of course being the computer nerd that I am, I just couldn't bear to see it sitting on a shelf collecting dust.  The problem, though, was that I didn't have an extra monitor for this computer.  So after a couple days of looking and feeling guilty about buying another monitor,  I finally came across a cheap solution:

I found this Iogear KVM switch online for really cheap.  It allows two computers to be connected to one keyboard, one mouse and one monitor at the same time.  You can switch back and forth between the two computers by pressing a quick hot key on the keyboard.  This solution actually worked out much better for me than getting another monitor.  It definitely saved me a TON of space on my desk!  Why am I always the last one to know about these kinds of things?!?

Welcome!

Welcome to my online "workshop".  Since I have way too many hobbies, and I'm always coming up with some kind of hair-brained scheme or another, I thought I'd use this blog as a place to post the progress of my various projects.  So the first project I will attempt?  Refinishing the old player piano sitting in my garage.  Stay tuned!