Langley couple 'rescue' massive pipe organ, install it in their house
How do you move a giant pipe organ across town? A couple pipes at a time, says proud new organ owner
Installing a gigantic pipe organ inside a modest home could reasonably be called impossible. But for Langley's Sipke and Lois Pyle, it's been a longtime dream.
"My wife and I, we've had a lifelong desire to have a pipe organ in our house — since we were in high school," said Sipke Pyle. "Somehow that never materialized."
That was, until Pyle caught wind of a massive pipe organ that was marked for sale at a Vancouver church.
Now, it's taking up most of his living room — and he couldn't be happier.
A massive instrument
But fulfilling his dream wasn't easy. In fact, it was riddled with uncertainty, and a lot of technical know-how.
When Pyle first decided to take a look at the instrument the task seemed insurmountable.
"Lois and I went down the same day after work," he said. "We had a good look at it, and we decided we would never be able to fit that in our house."
"It took up an entire room and it had a lot of pipes ... one of them was 17 feet long — and we don't have a 17 foot long room in our house."
They decided to walk away from it, but almost instantly regretted doing so.
"I said to myself, I think I've made a mistake. I'm 65 years old. Maybe if that organ is still available, and even if only half of it fits in my house, half a pipe organ would be better than none."
But when they went back to the church, the organ had been dismantled, and partially destroyed.
"All wires between console and pipes had been rudely hacked off. The console itself had been destroyed with sledgehammers and crowbars, and had been taken to the Vancouver city dump."
Some of the workers at the church were even using the pipes as plastic bag hangers.
"We made the decision that we'd like to rescue the organ," Pyle said.
"And it was a rescue mission."
Putting it back together
The pair moved hundreds of pipes back to Langley, sometimes just two at a time. They hired a moving company to help with the larger pieces, and we able to hunt down a second-hand console from Victoria.
When they finally had all the pieces sitting in their house, they had to figure out how to put it all back together. And it took months.
"We had to reconnect all the wiring," he said, adding it took weeks to put everything back together.
Now, the functioning organ stands proudly in Pyle's living room, right next to his grand piano. The labyrinth of pipes sit in their own room — a growing collection of 1,500 tubes that he's sourced from across the Lower mainland.
Pyle's wife, Lois, says the beautiful sounds that blow from the pipes are worth it — even though they could damage your eardrums if you're standing in the piperoom.
"It's the end of a life dream — or the beginning of a life dream, I should say."
Take a tour of the organ room and hear what it sounds like when Sipke Pyle plays:
With files from CBC's North by Northwest
To listen to the full interview, click on the audio labelled: Langley couple 'rescue' massive pipe organ, install it in their house