My birthday surprise

A couple weeks ago I turned 28! I had a great birthday - Garth took me to Flyte, a restaurant I had been dying to try. It was fantastic! But, the best part of my birthday was the most wonderful gift he surprised me with.....

A PIANO!!!

Yes, that's right. Garth bought me a real, live piano. He asked me a long time ago if I would ever want a real piano. As someone who took lessons for more the 10 yeas, the answer was YES! However, I always thought it would be down the road when we were in a bigger place. I have a keyboard, which is nice. But, a real piano is WAY better - from the way the keys feel and the way it sounds.

Anyway, Garth decided to look around to see if he could find one. Surprisingly, he found this Hobart-Cable piano on Craigslist for $200! The owner said the piano was 60 years old and that she needed to get rid of it because she was moving to a smaller place and wouldn't have room for it. Garth took his mom (who also plays the piano) with him to go look at the piano. She played it and it was in really good shape. Garth also found out that the piano was made in LaPorte, Indiana, which was right next to Valparaiso (where we used to live). So, Garth really believed we were meant to have that piano.

Here are some pictures...

Clearly, I no longer need to find something to put in that corner of my living room!

The keys are in good shape - all of them work, which can be rare for an older piano.

Here's the inside of the piano, which shows that it was made in LaPorte, Indiana.

When we were looking inside of the piano, we noticed some pencil markings on it. We pulled out a flashlight and noticed there were dates written on it. It's hard to see in this picture, but the date in the picture is 4-13-30. There were several dates written on it, but the earliest one was February 4, 1920! So, the piano is much older than we originally thought. Garth did some research online to see what we could find out. It turns out that the serial number on the piano proves that it was built in in 1917!!!! SO COOL! I'm just so thrilled to have a beautiful piano, and a wonderful piece of history! Thank you, Garth, for such a thoughtful birthday present!!!