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any glaring dangers of keeping my piano in my old room in the basement?

Mice, bugs, dust, humidity?

not sure what else to ask.

My playing is suffering with my piano in the living room of my folks. I want it in my old room where I can dig in and practice more.

It used to be a semi finished basement with carpets installed, but now we just use area rugs.

ok lemme know what you think.

-JD

As long as the basement does not leak water, I see no problem. I have several customers with pianos in their basements and they tend to be very stable due to the fact that there are less humidity and temperature changes down there. If your basement is pretty humid, you might talk to your piano technician about installing a dehumidifier rod and humidistat. If you have a problem with mice, you might try peppermint oil. Mice hate the smell of it.

I never checked that myself, but the cristals of sillicate used for pets commodities, are easy to find and not expensive

SIllicate gel is absorbing moisture from the air very efficiently, put an hygrometer in such bag it will read 0% moisture soon.

"real" sillicate gel bags can be find on the internet too, ready to use. (some can be dried once loaded with moisture)

Hot DC rods that would maintain a rised temperature , are also welcome I think (with an hygrostat unless the hygrometry is always above 45%)

I think that wool or silk can make an efficien moisture barrier, but the floor under the piano may need to be treated too, a simple plank laid on some 2x4 so there is some air circulating, should be enough, I am mostly thinking of concrete floors in materials that rabsorb and release humidity

Sure moths could like to eat some of the blancket but I would use one that cover the whole instrument, down to the floor.

I have seen a 1930 small grand that was never played, and was stored draped with silk or wool blanckets

The piano was just perfect, no corrosion no rust no parts blocked by humidity (it was a sad story where the child did die and the parents could not sell the piano, so they draped it (tight) and kept it for their whiole life)

protections against mices and moths of course

I did not realise you want to play there, just use the blancket when you are finished then, and of course the DC (with hygrostalsways better, just the DC against moisture is way cheaper than the complete system)

It is not big trouble to cover the piano when you are finished

Moisture barrier = wool, not cotton, may be some syntehics can do as well the cloth need to perspire to avoid condensation

Definitely watch out for dust, it can ruin the varnish. I would take care to wipe it down once in a while, making sure not to scratch the surface at all. This link goes over some parts of cleaning your piano.
http://www.cocoweb.com/blog/piano-care-and-maintenance/