Upstairs Surprises
Jan. 13th, 2019 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jtthomas If I've never mentioned it, my parents' house is kind of huge. (Not my house anymore. Nopes.)
My mom grew up here, then bought it from her dad for cheap. The main part's about a hundred years old, and there are at least two separate extensions, a huge basement, and both a second floor and an attic. The attic's basically empty, but the basement has all of my baby clothes and about three thousand vinyl records (at least half of which were destroyed in a flood when I was little, sadly).
The upstairs, however, is a mystery most of the time. It's where my dad's stuff goes when he doesn't want it. That means, of course, anything technological. He's kind of hopeless.
According to my mom, somewhere upstairs, there is a bunch of recording stuff. As in, she bought him enough stuff for his own recording studio and he never touched it after opening it for Christmas when I was a tiny child. So now, she's offered it to me if either one of us can find it upstairs.
I spent probably about an hour upstairs today trying and failing to find any of it to see if it's even compatible with modern technology (we still have a Windows 95 computer upstairs, too, so if it's not then it's staying here for someone else). But it's impossible to find to see if it's even worthwhile to claim as my own.
Things I did find:
--my mom's sign language textbooks
--my late aunt's mandolin, in desperate need of repair but maybe I can play it then?!?!?! I may save up some money for those purposes (update: my dad thought it over, he thinks it's his godfather's originally, most likely from the 1930s, and he's fine with it being mine since otherwise it would sit around. Also, the upstairs of this house has no heat, so me having it means it's not in the cold all winter every year which is probably better)
--extra guitar strings
--at least two guitars my dad would never admit exist, one of which is a 3/4 classical with not a single sign of who made it but at some point it was fitted with a strap button which has since fallen out given the hole and the fact that it had a strap tied onto the headstock with a literal piece of nylon string
--an Appalachian dulcimer which my dad has now declared I can have, because it came from Little Bear's original owner. Needs new strings, is otherwise perfect. Is also adorable, has its own case, and is definitely mine
--a whole lot more books than I thought I had
--a bag of cords I need to go through tomorrow in case there's one of the ones I need for my drawing tablet (the cord is nearly broken)
Overall, pretty successful in unexpected ways.
My mom grew up here, then bought it from her dad for cheap. The main part's about a hundred years old, and there are at least two separate extensions, a huge basement, and both a second floor and an attic. The attic's basically empty, but the basement has all of my baby clothes and about three thousand vinyl records (at least half of which were destroyed in a flood when I was little, sadly).
The upstairs, however, is a mystery most of the time. It's where my dad's stuff goes when he doesn't want it. That means, of course, anything technological. He's kind of hopeless.
According to my mom, somewhere upstairs, there is a bunch of recording stuff. As in, she bought him enough stuff for his own recording studio and he never touched it after opening it for Christmas when I was a tiny child. So now, she's offered it to me if either one of us can find it upstairs.
I spent probably about an hour upstairs today trying and failing to find any of it to see if it's even compatible with modern technology (we still have a Windows 95 computer upstairs, too, so if it's not then it's staying here for someone else). But it's impossible to find to see if it's even worthwhile to claim as my own.
Things I did find:
--my mom's sign language textbooks
-
--extra guitar strings
--at least two guitars my dad would never admit exist, one of which is a 3/4 classical with not a single sign of who made it but at some point it was fitted with a strap button which has since fallen out given the hole and the fact that it had a strap tied onto the headstock with a literal piece of nylon string
--an Appalachian dulcimer which my dad has now declared I can have, because it came from Little Bear's original owner. Needs new strings, is otherwise perfect. Is also adorable, has its own case, and is definitely mine
--a whole lot more books than I thought I had
--a bag of cords I need to go through tomorrow in case there's one of the ones I need for my drawing tablet (the cord is nearly broken)
Overall, pretty successful in unexpected ways.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-14 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-14 08:40 am (UTC)It and the mandola are a couple of things I've played for years.
I also have a tenor three string Appalachian (yeah, I know, what's that doing in rural Shropshire, UK? :o)
Enjoy!
no subject
Date: 2019-01-19 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-15 04:59 pm (UTC)