Thread: My first big effort

Tweet

I put in a pretty big effort for the fist time since I was a kid, and I am pretty pleased with the results. Video from last night can be seen here:

YouTube - Halloween 2010

A breakdown of what I did:

Window coverings- The ghost windows came from CVS- $5 covered 4 windows. The skeleton ones were $1 each from Dollar General. They are simply taped to the inside of the window and the light is left on inside to light them up. The window over our front door is not easily accessible, so no covering was used. A few hours before dark, I was visiting a neighbor and spotted a 70's strobe light in his garage. It was borrowed and placed pointing at the uncovered window solving that problem.

Graveyard- I picked up 6 of the 7 headstones for $1 each the day after Halloween last year from Walmart. A few were damaged in the wind a week before Halloween so I supplemented with some from Party City. The lights are red flood lights in cheap ground stake holders from Home Depot that I use to light the house each Christmas. The lighted skull and hands were my daughter's choice from Walmart. I started the graveyard a few weeks before Halloween and only mowed around it to give the graveyard and un-kept overgrown look.

Fog: I use a Fog Machine 1000 from Party City with a timer add-on and the fog liquid made to go with it. It was purchased last year, but I didn't have much else to go with it then. It is ran into a home made fog chiller that I made using the directions here: http://www.ghostsofhalloween.com/projects/fog_chiller/ . It was windy this year so the fog was a little disappointing. Last year there was no wind and the fog hugged the ground and covered the whole yard. The timer also didn't work well this year, ignoring my settings and always discharging fully until it had to stop to re-heat. Might need to buy a new one next year.

Sounds: I downloaded "The Wind" from here: http://www.countessbloodshalloweenho...2/sounds2.html , burned it to a CD, and put a CD player behind a gravestone.

Pumpkins: I waited until 10/30 to buy pumpkins, and this was really smart. They were on clearance, and carving them any earlier would have left me with shriveled pumpkins come Halloween. I used a cheap carving kit from Walmart and downloaded the patterns here: http://www.dltk-holidays.com/halloween/mpatterns.htm

Welcome to the Family & awesome job ! looks great, love the background sound effects. Hope to see more of your efforts here next year

Originally Posted by Dark lord

Welcome to the Family & awesome job ! looks great, love the background sound effects. Hope to see more of your efforts here next year

Thanks... I have already had a few neighbors tell me that I have inspired them, and that they can't wait to see what I do next year. Looks like I will be spending some time on this site to see how I can raise the bar!

Great job!
I love the windows.

The panels over your windows look great! I will have to try that next year!

Great job! What part of Dallas are you located? I might have to come by and see your work in person next year!

And welcome to the HallowweenForum!

Thanks Guys! I was very happy with the window covering too. It is ironic that the only thing I have spent a decent amount of money on (fog setup) didn't really work well, but yet it didn't subtract from the experience much.

MrNightmare- I am actually about 45 minutes North-East of Dallas in unincorporated Collin County (Nevada, TX zip).

Being out in the country, we don't get a whole lot of traffic... Usually between 50 and 75 kids a year. We are in one of the few actual neighborhoods, with about 35 houses each on acre lots. 75% of the kids we see are brought in to our neighborhood from areas even more remote where trick-or-treating is not an option. When I was a trick-or-treater 30 years ago in California, I lived in a huge subdivision where lots of houses went all out. While a few other houses here did some decorating, no one came close to my rather mild setup (at least by holloweenforum standards). I kinda feel like it is my duty to put on a show so I can give my daughter and her friends a taste of what the Halloween experience should be. If I am lucky, I will inspire some of my neighbors.

Hey titus i would like to say, you did a very outstanding job i liked it very much

Thanks Rob!