Sending a Couch on a Stairway to Heaven: A Kelowna Moving Story

Living in Kelowna means experiencing constant vistas full of lake views, sunshine and wineries. Moving in Kelowna, on the other hand, is less ideal. It's full of agin apartment buildings, tight staircases and other architectural features that are more decorative than functional. It makes moving large items of furniture challenging to say the least.

This has been the experience time and time again for Two Small Men mover Kerry Wallace. Always working out of Kelowna, he's experienced his fair share of awkward moves. But there was one that sticks in his mind. One specific couch move exemplified the importance of carefully planning a move.

With the company for several years now, Kerry casually states that he has “seen some things.”

Kerry has been with Two Small Men with Big Hearts for a long time. Long enough, as he casually puts it, to have “seen some things.” Working out of the Kelowna branch as a swamper, Kerry has helped tackle more than his fair share of awkward moves. But one couch move in particular still stands out.

“It goes way back,” Kerry recalls. “There were three of us on a job here in Kelowna. The customer had just bought this brand new couch, and she paid a lot of money for it. She was in the middle of a move, and our job was to pick it up from the store and bring it to her new apartment.”

It started out so well. Then they got to the destination.

“We get to the building, and it’s an apartment,” Kerry says. “And right away, you can tell it’s not going to be easy. It’s a big couch, and there’s no way it’s fitting through the door. The elevator was out, the stairwells were narrow, and she was on the second floor.”

It was a veritable Kelowna nightmare.

“This building had tight stairs and stuff hanging everywhere,” Kerry explains. “There was just no way to angle it in.”

The team cycled through the condo move playbook. It was time to get creative.

“She really wanted that couch upstairs,” Kerry laughs. “So we said, okay, this is what we’d have to do.”

It was like an episode of MacGyver.

“We blanket-wrapped it, stretch-wrapped it, and put piano moving straps around it,” Kerry says. “Then we had two guys up top pulling from the balcony, and I was on the ground guiding it so it wouldn’t bang into the building on the way up.”

And just like that, the couch was in the air.

“It had to go up about 24 feet in the air,” Kerry explains. “Once it was up there, we had to take the sliding glass door off and remove the legs from the couch just to get it inside.”

Suddenly, they were providing entertainment for the whole apartment block. Everyone stopped and watched.

“The guys were pulling from above, and I stayed clear underneath,” Kerry says. “I kept tension on the strap to keep it off the building, but I made sure I had distance in case anything slipped.”

While this move occurred before today's more rigid safety standards, it was still top of mind.

“Nobody wants to get hurt,” Kerry says simply. “You plan it out first, and then you stick to the plan.”

Granted, because of all the prep, the move took a little longer than usual.

“It probably added about an hour,” Kerry recalls. “You’ve got to rewrap everything, protect it properly, set the straps, and make sure everyone knows what they’re doing before you start pulling.”

But the customer was ultimately happy.

“She was very pleased,” Kerry says. “She was a little concerned at first, but once it was inside and nothing was damaged, she loved it.”

Kerry offered his own wisdom: “I told her, the only way this couch is coming out of here when you move again is back over the balcony.”

He wasn't joking.

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