The Long View (Take 2)

If you like the little story about angling the wall to allow the furniture into the bedroom, you may also appreciate this one, which has more to do with a piano than it has to do with architecture, but the two are related. We decided to sell our old piano, and a college student replied to our ad soon after we posted it. He said he would come and pick it up that afternoon. When I asked if he had a truck, it was apparent that he had not moved a piano before, because he thought he could carry it in his car. I suggested a rental truck with straps and blankets and a piano dolly. He arrived in a rental truck without any straps or blankets, and he had a small hand truck instead of a piano dolly. He also had a friend who was supposed to help with the heavy lifting. We had to employ the Egyptian pyramid building method to move the piano to the truck, using sections of PVC pipe as rollers, moving them from behind the piano to the path in front of the piano as we advanced toward the rental truck. Getting it up the ramp was a bigger challenge, but we managed it. I gave up a blanket and some rope to secure the piano for its ride to his apartment, and we heaved a sigh of relief as the truck left, thinking we had seen the end of the story. However, the phone rang the next morning, and the piano's new owner wondered if we had any advice for getting it into his apartment. It was stuck in the entry hall, where it could not be maneuvered around the corner into his apartment. He had also parked it on its end, and he had to climb over it to get into and out of his apartment.