Thread: Where do I START?

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Hey, all! I'm a new home-haunter from Temple, TX. I'm planning 2011's small haunt and party, and am not really sure where to begin! I have things roughed out in my head, but where to START?!? Should I start with prop building? Find a venue first? Seems like there are so MANY different facets to take care of, I'm a little overwhelmed! Any suggestions out there? Thanx!

Do you live in a house? If so, keep the party there because its more cost effective.

I am from Dallas, TX. Its always nice to have another Texan around here.

Where to start... I started with a corpse. total cost around $30, man hours... a crap load.

Then I moved onto a ghost (my first attempt when I was like 16 years old). Nothing special, it was a Styrofoam wig head on a lamp (with the shade taken off of it) then a black light bulb was plugged in, a fan behind it, and it worked well for a static prop and I got compliments on it. I would have done more but at the time, my mom wouldn't let me drill in the ceiling to make it a crank ghost.

Then I made a cross/non-technical scarecrow... Consisted of to very large pieces of wood which I nailed together and then I placed a plastic skull, which I covered and glued a burlap (potato bag from the store that I got for free) to the plastic skull and the spray painted to accent the bone features and did a little painting with white and grey around the head.

Honestly, there are a lot of various things you can start off with.. What were you thinking of starting on, since you said you have rough ideas. What is your budget? Meaning if you have a lot of money to spend, you can buy power tools which will help you create, say tombstones, fast and easier.

If you don't have that much money to spend, there are plenty of ideas still which you can do for your first haunt or party that are inexpensive and very cool ideas.

Tell us what you were thinking about doing and we might be able to help with more information!

hey & welcome!

Well, I'm an older guy (40), so I pretty much have all the tools, equipment and general know-how. I also THINK I have the $ to do a decent job. I plan to have the party somewhere other than my house, and probably do a very small haunt (maybe 4 quality scenes, with one or 2 of them being scares) to set the mood for the party.

I hope to have 1) an area with spiders/webs, with little crunchies on the floor that make people think of stepping on baby spiders, 2) maybe another sewer-type area, with pipes coming out of the walls (one with a surprise burst of 'steam' from a small fogger), water sounds, mildew smell, a few play rats/mice, and MAYBE even a couple little mice or gerbils running along the wall (in a clear tube, of course). 3) a cute little zombie girl, eating her mommy, with the scare from a dark corner opposite our little zombie, and 4) a mausoleum, with skeletons in alcoves along the walls (maybe a scare here, too). Last will be the facade for the party - large double-doors in a wall of skulls or something, that open up to the party in the 'catacombs'.

I'll have to come up with design ideas for the catacombs - like sarcophagi to sit on, with skull lanterns along the walls. Maybe a couple of large, broken pillars in the room, as well as some skeletal remains in interesting poses. The party will probably be 50-100 people.

So, that's my basic idea. Problem is I'm not really sure where to start. What I want to do seems so overwhelming right now that I'm kind of paralyzed. I guess just putting it down here is more helpful than anything.

Welcome to HF!