Many times, I've had to figure out ways to solve problems on my own, when the solution might be too expensive if done by a professional.

For instance, when our kitchen sink was broken, instead of hiring a handyman to fix it (or asking my husband who was on call that week), I bought a sink faucet with handles and installed it myself...which was actually quite difficult. But after I was finished with the job, (and I was completely covered from head to toe with water) I felt more satisfied  than I would have otherwise.  It is an amazing feeling to accomplish something for yourself! 

The last month, we've had field mice coming into the house, trying to make homes here.  It happens every winter...I don't know where they come in at, but I have to set the mouse traps every year.   I won't ever leave poison because I hate to see them suffer.  

Some mice had gotten into a VERY strange spot this year...somewhere I never would have expected- My piano!! 
What were they doing in there?? I have no idea...but I'd go to play the piano, and I'd hear "squeak , squeak!"
I also started hearing a gnawing sound, and wondered what they were gnawing at.   The traps I set did not seem to catch them. I was at my wits end.

For a couple of months, they lived in there, and I was unable to catch them, even after I moved the piano and took it apart.   They just were sneaky little things! 

Then, I started to notice that many of my piano keys were going out. They wouldn't play...I could push the keys and they just wouldnt do anything.   I knew the mice had something to do with it, but I didn't know what to do to fix it.

Finally, after I finally was able to catch the mice, I decided to open the piano and try to figure out why the piano keys wouldn't work anymore.

I thought about hiring a piano man to come and help me out, but it costs $75.00 just to get the piano man to take the trip out here....THEN you have to pay for whatever work he does to it...which could end up being a couple hundred dollars.   So I decided that  I would try to figure out what to do myself.

Now, on the inside of the piano, there are a bunch of Hammers, and knobs and stuff like that...and  I don't really know the names for the wooden thing that moves when you push the piano key, but it is supposed to be connected to the hammer with some sort of strap.  I noticed this after looking at it a while.  When you push the key, it moves the little wooden part up, the wooden part hits another wooden part which is connected to the hammer, and then the strap helps to push the hammer back down after it has hit the string.   Does that make sense? Probably not. LOL

Anyway, I realized that the mice had actually chewed through many of the straps!     I finally decided that I could actually replace those straps with a piece of ribbon!    So with a screwdriver, a pair of scissors, and a long piece of ribbon, I was able to fix the problem.....

and here it is!



and a closeup:




  The piano works GREAT now...just like new....and it cost me nothing (except a little bit of time and effort)!

Take that, crazy mice!

Also, if you happen to be interested, and would like to save yourself some money at tuning your own piano, it's actually pretty simple to do the tuning yourself.  This page has some great tips on tuning your own at home...however, I don't think that ALL the equipment is necessary

http://piano.detwiler.us/