The day I got my first piano was one of the most exciting of my childhood. I'd been playing the keyboard at school for a few years and really wanted a piano. It arrived on a Saturday morning - a beaten up old thing that my mum got out of the local paper for 50 quid. The first problem was that it wouldn't fit through the front door so my dad had to saw a bit off the side of it to get it through (I was assured that it would have "no effect" on the sound, which considering the state it was in was probably true!).
When I first sat down at my brand new (second-or-probably-fifth-hand) piano the first thing that struck me was the size of the keys. I'd been playing the school keyboards for so long that I was used to their flimsy, plastic keys. The keys on the piano are much bigger and heavier and harder to push down. I quickly realized that everything i'd learned to play (from memory, I hadn't learned to read music yet) on the keyboard I couldn't play on the piano as there was no way I could reach some of the keys with my hands in their familiar positions, let alone press them down.
Over the next few weeks the piano got played about 4 times and eventually just sat there gathering dust. What I really needed was some private piano lessons to get me started properly on it. My dad not having any piano playing experience at all just said "I told you this would bloody happen!" to my mum and there it sat for about 5 months until my uncle bought me some private piano lessons for my birthday.
Within about 3 months my playing ability went from basically nil to being able to play with both hands whilst reading music, albeit slowly. The amount of enjoyment i've since had from my piano has been immeasurable - my private piano lessons made all the difference and gave me a renewed love for playing the piano. I've not gone on to become a virtuoso performer or anything like that but we now have a piano in our house and both our children are having private piano lessons - i just hope they get as much out of them as I did.