Even these days, when cheap secondhand pianos are in plentiful supply, having been tossed aside to make way for compact, sophisticated keyboards, not many people can brag about owning a Steinway. Fewer own one that’s not worth bragging about. And then there’s the guy who actually went out of his way to buy one that’s not worth bragging about.

So gather ’round my 133-year-old Steinway upright, and hear a little ditty about a man with a laptop, a rental van and impulse-spending issues.

My tune is not quite a dirge, I suppose, since this piano is actually an improvement on the troll it displaced from my living room. But I’d have endured far less angst, and gotten more piano for my money, if I had listened to the experts before leaping at my “bargain” discovery…

Read the entire article at Thinking of Refinishing Your Own Piano? Don’t. – NYTimes.com.