Moving the sofa sleeper

We promised we would show you how we moved the sofa sleeper from the Bonus Room to the Tower Room at Smoky Mountain Tower. It happened, only due to the hard work and expertise of our three friends, Darren, Mark and Jerry.

If you've ever moved one of these beasts, you know what a job it is. But the first thing Mark and Darren did was to remove the springs mechanism. That significantly lightened the load - but not the bulk!

We first tried to take it UP the two flights of stairs. But it soon became obvious that wasn't going to work. So these three brave souls took it DOWN on flight to the main floor and out through the sunroom to the hot tub deck. Jerry had a bunch of ropes (he's our tree guy, and we'll tell you more about that next time). The three guys used the ropes (and their strength) to literally hoist the sofa sleeper up to the top deck, then carried it in the door and set it up.

Here's Mark on the sunroom roof - the first leg of the hoist.


With Mark pushing below and Jerry & Darren (not in picture) pulling from the top deck, up it came!


Then Darren (left) and Mark carried it into the Tower Room and put it back together.


Of course, I (Dave) was taking the pictures, so I obviously wasn't much help. But we did buy a brand new mattress for the sofa sleeper later in the day, and I hauled that up 4 flights and installed it. So now we have a great new place for relaxation - and sleeping - all the way up in the Tower.

It's official - Smoky Mountain Tower is now 3 bedrooms!

Yes, we now have three full bedrooms, plus the Tower Room. Remember the Bonus Room, with the queen sofa-sleeper?


Well, take a look at the new Queen Bonus Room!


This room now features a new queen bed set, a new wide-screen TV and really pretty TV cabinet. And we're not finished. We expect to add some additional furniture to provide room for guests' clothes and personal belongings. We've already given the room some privacy by adding vertical blinds in the doorway.

It's not perfect. Guests will have to go up or down to a bathroom. So while we're advertising 3 bedrooms, we really have two private bedrooms, a "bonus bedroom" and the sofa-sleeper in the tower. Here's what the Tower Room now looks like.


If you've been to Smoky Mountain Tower, you're probably wondering how we EVER got the sofa sleeper up the steps. Check back in a couple of days and we'll show you how we did it.

But the bottom line is that we can now sleep up to 8 people at Smoky Mountain Tower. And one other thing: several guests have asked for a TV in the main floor King Bedroom Suite. Well, your wish has been granted. Smoky Mountain Tower now has TVs in EVERY BEDROOM, plus the living room. And all of them are connected to Cable TV, so you get at least 70 channels. We expect to have DVD and/or VCR players also in at least 2 of the bedrooms.

This is just a small part of what we got done last week. We'll keep telling you about more things in the days to come. Meanwhile, if you have any more suggestions or questions, please be sure to leave a comment here or write us at Dave@SmokyMountainTower.com.