http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/reaperrick/ Halloween Discussion Forum, Haunts and Home Haunt Community. en Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:52:08 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.halloweenforum.com/images/afterdark/misc/rss.jpg http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/reaperrick/ http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/reaperrick/843-monster-mud-tree-peter-pan-room.html Sun, 08 May 2011 02:07:31 GMT Monster Mud Tree or The Lost Boys Tree…..for the Peter Pan Room. Background: Several years ago my wife, she’s a general... Monster Mud Tree or The Lost Boys Tree…..for the Peter Pan Room.

Background:
Several years ago my wife, she’s a general contractor/builder/interior designer, and I bought some property and decided to subdivide the property and build some houses. The idea was to sell the houses then build our house on the last piece of land. Well we started building the houses when the market dropped out so it took a while (2 years) to sell the properties. The properties sold and we started building our house.
Our House:
Our house was designed and built by my talented wife. She has always wanted a turret in the design so it was designed with a turret. The top room of the turret was designed to be a play room for the kids and someday the grand kids. (We wanted to be the cool grandparents.) Our family is really big into Halloween and the movies. The theme we came up with for the play room was Peter Pan. Where you could pretend to be a fairy, a lost boy or a pirate, something for everyone!
The Peter Pan Room:
The room itself is a circular room and has a second level. The first level is designed to be the Darling bedroom. The wall will have a mural painted to look like the London skyline at night. London will fade into an over view of skull island. A ladder takes you to the second level Neverland. You climb up the ladder into the lost boy tree. You climb through the opening of the tree. Half the second level is the Lost boys and the other half is the Pirate area. We designed fiber optic lights in the wall and ceiling. One of the fiber optics lines is tinkerbell’s fight. It starts from the Darling house on the mural and extends the length of the mural through London past the moon and to the second star on the right into Neverland and into the Lost boys tree. “tink’s” house is the lantern in the tree. Fiber optics will also be the lights of the city and the night stars.
Monster Mud Tree:
I’ve built other monster mud items before so I thought a tree made out of monster mud would work well. We had the house framer build the walls and basic shape of the tree for us. He thought we were a little crazy at first but now he sees the madness behind the idea. After the framing and dry wall was completed we built the shape of the tree out of wire mesh and stapled the mesh to the wall being careful to staple it to the frame. We probably used way too many staples but I wanted to be sure it was secure. In some of the area of the mesh we were having problems getting the mesh to bulge out from the wall. We simple shoved plastic trash bags in those areas to keep the mesh from collapsing. Next came the first coat of Monster Mud. We mixed the monster mud recipe and dipped long strips of cloth into the mud and just started laying it over the mesh. A few days later we put another coat of monster mud and cloth on the tree. I painted the tree and shade of brown but it wasn’t necessary because we found some really cool fake tree bark at a store and used that for the outside. We also bought several used fake/plastic trees to cut up and use for the top of the tree. My wife added moss and Christmas lights in the tree for the finishing touches.
The Peter Pan Room isn’t done yet. We still have the mural to paint on the wall and to cut back the fiber optics. But it will get done this summer in time for Halloween. I’ll post more photos when it’s done.
P.S.
The house is finished!!!! ]]> ReaperRick http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/reaperrick/843-monster-mud-tree-peter-pan-room.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/reaperrick/559-its-finally-here.html Mon, 17 May 2010 17:56:59 GMT It’s finally here! For the past couple of years our family has been living in an older house, see my first blog, and now we are moving forward... It’s finally here!

For the past couple of years our family has been living in an older house, see my first blog, and now we are moving forward with the construction of our new house. We met with the architect and had him draw up our house. After numerous modifications we finalized the plan and had the engineer go over everything. The next item of business is getting the bids done. By the way my wife Jacquie is the designer and general contractor. She’s calling in all her favors and getting some great deals from her sub-contractors. We hope to submit all the paper work to our bank by the end of the month and hopefully we’ll have the loan all set up so we can break ground.

Some good news. We initially thought that we would have to tear down and demolish the old house on the property but with the way the new house is situated on the property we can actually build the new house while we live in the old house. I am so excited to tear down the old house it’s been a real pain in the back living in it and having all my property in storage.

More good news. There is a pair of Great Horned owls that live and nest on my property all year long. Well each year they have two or three baby owls that actually nest above my driveway. I don’t park under the nest! We were concerned that because of construction of the new house we would have to tear out the tree where the baby owls are. But the baby owls have started to leave the nest and explore all the other trees. So I don’t think we’ll have a problem when we tear out the tree. And I’m sure that the adult owls will find another nest that they will confiscate from some other birds. Great Horned owls don’t build nests they steal them from other birds.

The best news. Depending on the completion date of the new house, were trying to be in by Oct 31st, I’ll be back in the haunted house season. I can start pulling out the decorations and props and build a few more. I’ve got several good ideas from other members of this forum. Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions. The first idea that I plan to incorporate is a rotating shadow figure in the window of the turret. See picture of the house plan.



It’s been hard these past couple of years not being able to set up my house for Halloween but it now appears that this year the tradition will be back! ]]> ReaperRick http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/reaperrick/559-its-finally-here.html http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/reaperrick/402-what-s-halloween-fanatic-do.html Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:16:47 GMT What’s a Halloween fanatic to do when you can’t celebrate the best holiday of the year? For the past 15+ years I’ve been building home haunts scaring... What’s a Halloween fanatic to do when you can’t celebrate the best holiday of the year? For the past 15+ years I’ve been building home haunts scaring the neighborhood with different Halloween ideas/props. I’ve built pepper’s ghost effects, pirates, FCG’s, swamps, cemeteries, laboratories and all sorts of stuff. Every year I tried something new and the neighbors loved it. I loved doing it.

Except this year I won’t be building my home haunt. This year I won’t be living in a house. My house is being demolished and I’ll be moving out before Halloween. I bought my current house two years ago with the knowledge that we would demolished in order to build our new house on the property. The house was built in 1910 and has too many problems to repair or fix. It’s easier to start over. The property is ¾ acre with trees and a small creek surrounding it. The front yard has Utah’s largest London Plane tree. There is a pair of great horned owls living there and every year they have several baby owls. We love the property and area.

So what am I to do this Halloween? All my props, equipment and tools are packed away in storage collecting real cob webs. I thought about helping my brother in law with his home haunt, he’s also a fanatic but it’s not the same when it’s not your own. I could try getting an extra job at some of the professional haunts but it’s still not the same. I’ve always enjoyed the creativity of Halloween. Trying to find a new idea, figuring out how to build it, building it, then watching others react to it. It’s a magical experience. I know many of you feel the same way.

While I won’t be able to build my haunt this year I think that I’ll visit as many haunts as possible to get new ideas for next year. ]]> ReaperRick http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/reaperrick/402-what-s-halloween-fanatic-do.html