When we were moving, I considered selling the electric Yamaha piano that we bought when DS took lessons way back when. I contacted the school where he had gone to see if they knew anyone who was interested in buying it, and they said I could advertise in their newsletter classified section. In the end I decided to keep it and after we moved, took a community refresher course and got some fun out of that. Also I just feel more refined and cultured owning a piano .
We sort of downsized from about 2000 sq ft to 1500. DH keeps telling people this house is much smaller but he’s not the one cleaning it! It’s right sized. We also gave up a separate study and a loft, but gained year round outdoor space. And a resort style pool and yard. We went from two story to one, with just a few steps that can be ramped if necessary. We also went from a one car garage to two car; plenty of room for DH’s car and his tons of boxes both from his parents house and all the stuff he didn’t have time to go through when we moved so he just packed it. We have a large master, use one of the bedrooms as a study for both of us, and the other set up for guests but I also use it as my “husband snoring” getaway.
I’m more at home in this house after three years than the last one we lived in for 28 years. Also DS is very happy knowing the family owns a house in San Diego. So no intent of moving again or going to a retirement community. It’s our forever home.
We have a grand that my H plays daily. We won’t be getting rid of it any time soon but would likely go to oldest D who plays daily. Now for college graduation we give her a digital piano. H is picky so it is good one with weighted keys. Closed it has a very narrow profile and fits easily in apt. Plus you can put on headphones and not disturb neighbors… can’t say that for H’s grand.
If you want to donate check with your church or a retirement home if it has good sound. Our large church as a grand in sanctuary and in a reception hall. There are a few uprights around but for the ones that don’t need to be “pretty” I think they like digital because can be moved easily from place to place and don’t go out of tune
I need to ask if there are other advantages to a digital vs upright piano?
H plays and must have a piano but we are looking at a move in the next year or two and
cannot see moving the current piano to a small place.
When we needed to sell our upright piano to make room for a grand, my son’s piano teacher found us a buyer out of her pool of other students. They paid to move it out of my house in addition to paying me for the piano. Worked out well!
There are movers who specialize in moving pianos. Those are the folks to use if a piano is to be moved. Piano teachers and music stores or tuners may be able to refer you to good sources.
Our newspaper lets you place ads for items $100 or less at no charge. If you just want a good home for the piano, that may be a way of advertising for it, making clear costs of moving the piano are on new owners.
@intparent Internet was extremely slow last night, wasn’t it? I posted the same comment multiple times, too, because I kept hitting “Post Comment” impatiently. On the other hand, your piano store was patient! They kept your piano for two years for consignment? That’s sounds long!
I feel the same way!! That’s where I feel my secret inner “snobbishness”.
@oregon101 To me, the advantages of the digital pianos are lighter, easier to move, take up less space and you can play anytime and do not bother the neighbors. But for me, you can never fully replace real piano with digital piano. (Maybe emotionally…)
Well, I only went to consignment at the piano store after multiple attempts on Craigslist over a period of a year with lower and lower prices.
Then I moved twice, and kept notifying them of my new address. The last time I did that (a month or so ago), the guy said, “Huh, I don’t see that piano here. We must have moved it to our other store.” Then a couple weeks later I got a check from them for the agreed amount with no note enclosed. Made me wonder if they’d sold it and forgot to send the check before I called about moving a second time. Or else they got tired of the paperwork. But I’m kind of suspecting the first scenario.
@oregon101 The digital is even narrower profile than an upright (the model D has anyway), doesn’t need to be tuned, and has headphones so can go at it and not disturb neighbors. Even though it looks like one unit (and not like synthesizer on stand) it actually come apart and the main keyboard part is light enough for one strong person to carry. D loves hers but even more loves coming over and playing our grand when her dad isn’t in the LR working (where he takes piano playing breaks throughout the day ) You can’t beat the sound, but again not as many uprights can give you that grand sound.
As mentioned earlier, the grand piano is probably going to important part of deciding how small to downsize - you can hear it all over our house when H plays and we have large home now. H actually bought it from piano teacher who was going to retirement home before we even met.
I have a digital piano - bought when my daughter was taking lessons and had outgrown the little electric keyboard. They are fun in that you can play it as different instruments, can record what you play onto a digital device, and they play just like a piano. They come in many price ranges (Yamaha makes a wide range of them) and I can carry it myself (it actually separates into two pieces the piano and the stand). It is in my house but is technically my daughters - it was a birthday gift. One day when she has an apartment with enough room she can take it but right now it is so small that I have no problem with it in my house (or a downsized house should that happen).
When I was seven years old, we moved into a house that had a baby grand. I don’t actually know what my parents did with it when they moved away 50 years later.
We are determined to leave the billiard table in the basement of the house when we leave, just like the owners before us and the owners before them did.
When it was time to buy a piano for my son, I bought a high-end digital piano for the reasons mentioned here. He loves having it in his bedroom, so he can practice privately. And I love that he will be able to take it with him when he moves out.
I’m the opposite of most here. I get claustrophobic in small spaces. I enjoy having a spacious home, and it’s not that hard to keep clean. I keep it picked up and dusted most of the time, but the real credit goes to the housecleaning service we use every other week. We live in a large home, but it’s in a “zero lot line” section of our neighborhood, so it doesn’t have much of a back yard at all. We back to a golf course, so you have an illusion of space. The way the house is designed, you wouldn’t realize the square footage by looking at it from the street. We only have 3 bedrooms, so the space comes from the large room sizes and a very large space that serves as my DH’s office. Not “home office,” but actual OFFICE from which he runs his business. We still have D2 home at breaks/holidays, so we are not totally empty nesters, and most of our family lives out of our city, so we need space to accommodate them.
We listed our piano, which had been mine as a child, in our online group “neighborhood”. Free if they moved it. Neighbors around the corner had children that wanted to learn. They hired the movers and it was gone in a day to a new good home. That compensated for the nostalgia.
Oh…the billiard table. We are hoping the next owners think it’s the cat’s meow. Ours also has a top that can be placed on top for ping pong. Definitely is NOT going to my next house.
I will say…kids use it when they are here…but neither of them has any interest in owning it.
In response to OP, downsizing could be good or not depending on each individual case. In my situation, the home mortgage has been paid off, the property tax is only around $2,000, the home insurance is less, and the utility bill is on average around $180 a month. I do most of repairs and fixing around the house, so there really isn’t too much maintenance cost. The home real estate tends to grow at higher rate than condos and things look to appreciate in the next decade and two given the demographic mobilization trend. My college age kids also want to come home to their own bedrooms during their breaks and I do need guest rooms for my relatives and friends when they visit from out of state, as well. And yes, we do need the privacy and space for my musician kids to play piano and violin and make music for YouTube channel in their “home studio.” I also need my basement that serves as my kids’ athletic room as well as my photographic studio. Again, it’s all each individual situation with financial and social considerations factoring in.
I am mixed about downsizing. I had to do it because my property taxes were insane and spending less on utilities and upkeep makes sense for retirement. Heck, I still had a mortgage and could not retire while owning the place. But i adored my old neighborhood. I think of the energy involved in the move, the rehab of the new place. The process is fun, but draining, and is that what I’d really want to do with the last few years, given other choices? It is rough when busy with work.
On the other hand, I think of the older man with a broken hip that I talked to a while back. He was moving furniture to put the house up for sale when he fell. He and his wife were in their mid 80s and said they should have done the downsize 10 years prior when they were a bit more fit.
To the OP, wait for a place with two bedrooms. My new place is of the size that my kids can stay at Christmas, if tightly, and the dining room table can expand to fit all. It is a nice counterpoint to a rather solitary life to have your kids gather around on occasion, and waking up in the same place feels like home.
Tiggerdad, good point on houses appreciating faster than condos. I can’t share walls either as I play instruments. Fortunately mine are not piano sized.