Thread: Anatomy of our 2008 Haunt

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For those who care ... WHY?? ... anyway, our 2008 Haunt is actually getting close to being finished. We took lots of in-process-pics this time. When I posted the the '07 Haunt pics, we had some PMs asking various "How'd you do thats?" .... er ... maybe it was "Why'd you do that?"

Oh well, at the current inflating cost of threads, I thought I'd toss these pics in to match the value of the thread with it's cost to me.

ANATOMY OF OUR HAUNT

Back in September my son and I hauled all the wood from the "wrong side of the house" aaaaallllll the way around to the front and started trying to decipher our '07 pics and codes written on the 2x4s.

Ah! walls!!


We use a framed lattice to add more solidity to the structure and it allows us to make changes to the interior very easily. It holds / hides extension cords and video equipment too.



This year we extended the entrance all the way to the sidewalk. We needed the extra 18" for our new greater.


Oops, the new fence is crooked ... installed crooked. Mmmm. Let's say we did that on purpose because it's supposed to be old ... yeah, that's what we did. This is right after my son suggested that we take the roof all the way to the house and make it look like a spider web. You see a little of it peeking up above the back part of the side walls.


"But Dad, I did all the work coming up with the idea of the spiderweb roof, the least you can do is build it by yourself." There is no pic of my response.


Spider's view of the web structure. Yes, that's a slightly twisted 4x4 that forms the center beam for the plastic sheet roof. Some one bought a golf cart and left a huge, custom "pallet" in our parking lot at work - All 3" torx screws. My son and I dismantled it and used every piece of wood and the screws too. Free wood. Cool.


It took my son hours to construct this with his compressed air web spinner. Riiii
ght.


That's it for this first installment. We should be VERY close to being finished by Sunday night and I MUST be finished Monday night, because I'm out of town for work until Friday

I used a tripod tonight to get a "black light" pic of the new Laboratory, so here's a preview of the next installment.

Lt I can tell the difference the addion has made on your haunt, I think it looks great! I can't believe you are gonna be out of town till Friday....man I feel for ya guy, thats gotta be rough with you trying to complete something like you guys are working on. It will be be a good time for your son to become lead haunt builder! He can get it to completion.

Your house looks great as we are just like you, we try to add more each year. Look forward to hearing what the spectators have to say this year at your place, its always so much fun when they come & you have added more!!

Have a good trip & hurry home safefully for our beloved halloween night!

the Muffster

Thanks Muffy, you're very kind.

We put in a long day again today, but my son had to quit early to finish up a paper due in school tomorrow. He also has two tests this week, so I'm not too optimistic about any significant contributions after I leave. My Flight isn't until tomorrow evening, so I've taken tomorrow off to achieve what I can.

The bottom line is that our plan this year was very ambitious if all went well ... and it did not. Winds and the real world (the job that pays for all this) contrived to slow and even reverse our progress this year. Yet we accomplished much more than last year.

Today while we worked we had many, many drive bys ... aaaa lookers that is. At least a dozen families walked up and asked if they could tour the haunt. We were working on props in the garage, so there's nothing left to trip over or fall on them = foot traffic OK. Some Moms and kids come each day (it seems). Today there were a lot of first timers.

Everyone was very nice ... complementary ... lots of questions ... several contribution offers. Maybe I should add a UNICEF box next year.

Too busy to take pics today, but will take and post some in the morning before I get started.

Looks great!
Where do you get those wall sheets with the brick motif?
DH is busy building an entry and ended up having to buy flooring with a brick motif to cover it up.

Love the lab pic!

MsM

Originally Posted by MsMeeple

Looks great!
Where do you get those wall sheets with the brick motif?
DH is busy building an entry and ended up having to buy flooring with a brick motif to cover it up.

Love the lab pic!

MsM

All the walls are Scene Setter Plastic sheets. Because the SS sheets are about as thin as a typical plastic table cloth, we us 4 or 6 mill plastic sheeting / drop cloths from Home Depot as the base material. We stretch it between 2x4s, then use 3M spray adhesive (77 is best) to adhere the SS to the thick plastic. Most of the walls have another scene setter print on the inside which makes these walls that much stronger. When not in use, fold or roll up on the 1x2s.

Later you will see pics of the garage door covers which are mounted only to PVC frames and just roll up on their supports for storage.

The first year we used the Scene Setters on the heavy plastic, our strong Santa Ana winds scheared the plastic off at the bottom on both sides. I walked out one morning and both side walls were actually horizontal. At my son's suggestion we painted some PVC pipe with RED/BROWN primer and a little bit of black - looks just like rusty metal pipes. Then we screwed the pipe to the inside (only) top and bottom sheet mounts (these are only 1x2s). For the last 6 years we never had a rip until this year when the wind was strong enough to brake the 2x2s used for the lab for the last 2 years. We repaired this with 2x4s and should have no more problems.

TIP - the tighter the sheets between the 2x4s, the less problems you'll have with the wind. Let me know if you have any more questions about this technique.

Lt I'm probably gonna have some questions for ya cause next year I would like to have some free standing walls with scene setters on them to create almost like a movie set. Someone here on the board has done that where he has a scene & its outside & its just a room with no walls but it has a wall behind all the props...it really looks very cool. You have good ideas here on how to make that much more sturdier.

Our plan also didn't play out this year much of it was just not being able to expand because of not being able to find anyone to help us. We are getting a little spread out here & it concerns me cause I just think we need people at various parts of this. This year it will only be the 3 of us, so much of the action that was to go on in the funeral parlor will not happen, also we let the gypsy tent go cause of lack of help.

We too have our "Fans" that drive by and slow down & some even stop on this sort of busy road of ours. The kids are always watching from the school bus & now more of the local kids wave & say hi as they know our names. We were out there till 11pm last night draping 75 strands of lights on all those darn bushes we have!!lol So we are lit up pretty good here.

Last night we sat on the tailgate of the truck thinking how lucky we have been that nothing has ever been damaged or stolen here where we are. We feel very fortunate. We still have tons of things to get done so we are moving along.

Muf

Originally Posted by LT Scare

All the walls are Scene Setter Plastic sheets. Because the SS sheets are about as thin as a typical plastic table cloth, we us 4 or 6 mill plastic sheeting / drop cloths from Home Depot as the base material. We stretch it between 2x4s, then use 3M spray adhesive (77 is best) to adhere the SS to the thick plastic. Most of the walls have another scene setter print on the inside which makes these walls that much stronger. When not in use, fold or roll up on the 1x2s.

Later you will see pics of the garage door covers which are mounted only to PVC frames and just roll up on their supports for storage.

The first year we used the Scene Setters on the heavy plastic, our strong Santa Ana winds scheared the plastic off at the bottom on both sides. I walked out one morning and both side walls were actually horizontal. At my son's suggestion we painted some PVC pipe with RED/BROWN primer and a little bit of black - looks just like rusty metal pipes. Then we screwed the pipe to the inside (only) top and bottom sheet mounts (these are only 1x2s). For the last 6 years we never had a rip until this year when the wind was strong enough to brake the 2x2s used for the lab for the last 2 years. We repaired this with 2x4s and should have no more problems.

TIP - the tighter the sheets between the 2x4s, the less problems you'll have with the wind. Let me know if you have any more questions about this technique.

Thanks for the explanation. I thought they looked like scene setters but thought they couldn't be because you were using them outside and they are so thin. Now I know why you can use them outside
Wish you would have posted before hubby made the walls and bought the floor covering!

MsM

LT, that looks absolutely great. I love the way you used the SS, too. I hope all goes well with your trip and that you totally enjoy Halloween night!! Have Fun!

It looks like you guys have done a ton of work, I sure it is going to be fantastic!

Thanks All.

Surveyed the "To Do" list yesterday and decided to jump into work rather than post pics. After another looong day, we are almost ready. Got two bits of good news last night. My travel scheduled for this week is postponed at least one week and I stepped on the scales and have lost about 12 pounds since we started the Haunt in mid Sep.

To night we will build our regular montsters. The Criptkeeper is the highest priority. He'll be standing behind the "Greater" coffin in the entrance.

Here are a couple of pics I snapped last evening ...







Wind battered and 6' lower than when setup, the roof ghost will be re-engineered next year...




That styrofoam coffin has an old christmas decoration that raises and lowers the lid about 3". Bought the mask, made the hands using HF How To. Shovel idea was stolen from an HF haunt too.