[LairMistress]

I thought maybe I could zip tie pvc pipe to the vertical supports, and then drape a cover over it, making the tunnel around 7 ft high.

Those are grip strips along it, but they're not great. They are the sandpaper style, not raised or rubber.

 

[LairMistress]

I'm thinking that they'd go up it, which is easier, unless they are wearing tricky shoes. (Heels they're not accustomed to). I do wonder, if some would start up, change their minds, and go back down. The exit would be our stairs, which I would be seated next to.

Alternatively, I could block both entrances, and put our ghost lady in the tunnel. I feel like I need to make some use of it. We didn't have the ramp in previous years. ToTs have always used both sets of steps, we open the arbor gates, so they won't walk into the surrounding cemetery.

 

[LairMistress]

We haven't treated or painted the ramp. It's really sort of a loaner. We were on a waiting list to get one, and a daily passerby saw me carrying Nick up the stairs every day. Her father owns properties here in town, and happened to have one come open, that he'd built the ramp for. The new tenants didn't need the ramp, so she asked her father if we could have it. I explained that we were supposed to be getting one, and he said he'd go ahead and put this one up in the meantime. Which turned out to be great, because we're still waiting, several months later!

I can ask if he minds if we treat or paint it. I kept his number, in order to give this ramp back, once the waitlist organization comes through. They actually plan on putting in a lift, because of the steep incline.

I'm not sure if those are the same hands. I only saw photos of them last year. I'm hoping to go to At Home sometime next week, but I'm not sure. It's 2 hours from us!

 

[LairMistress]

Thanks everyone for the porch compliments!

We do still use the ramp, but my son won't use it on Halloween. He's 14 and hasn't enjoyed Halloween for several years now. In addition to CP, he's autistic, and just doesn't like dressing up and dealing with the crowds, so he stays indoors and watches movies. He gets candy anyway, because he does enjoy that part, haha!

 

[LairMistress]

Hilda--thank you, and hugs back!

I love all of these ideas! I am a worry wart about going down the ramp. I have a four year old son too, and he loves to run down it. I get a dozen new grey hairs each time, because he's not the most graceful child!

I worried about the concrete and steps each year, too. I was so used to living in Las Vegas, where everything is too new to not be cookie-cutter safe, ya know? Then, kids just walked up the slightly inclined driveway, and there we were, no steps at all. Did I mention that I'm a worry wart? haha!

I don't think that anything that I have is very "scary". I work alone out there, and I prefer the eerie atmosphere of what miiiiight happen, over actually jumping at them, etc. I have added some animated speaking characters, though, that I didn't have before (clearance HD and CVS items). I do have full size creatures that never moved at all, and didn't have any sort of soundtrack (mostly home-made with masks), and the some kids were pretty scared of being close to them. I try to keep the creatures away from the steps, so there's no real need to run...although a kid may think differently than I do.

Last year, weather ruined pretty much everything for the cemetery, and I didn't have a lot planned for the porch that year, because it's open. That's why I thought that maybe I'd make enclosure panels, so I could still decorate if it was too windy for the yard creatures and smaller, lighter tombstones, like it was last year.

 

[LairMistress]

I forgot to answer one of your questions, Hilda! I wouldn't mind if some didn't want to go up the tunnel. There have been a few over the years who don't want to come up to the house at all, and I go down to the sidewalk to give them candy anyway.

I haven't even mentioned it to Michael last night. Generally he grumbles about Halloween, period. He may not want to have kids use the ramp at all, which would kinda bum me out now that so many good ideas have been thrown around!

If he says no, I will just put up a tunnel, block it with a PVC gate at the bottom, and put the seance table at the top tunnel entrance, but put the ghost lady in the center of it anyway. I think it would be a good place for her, if I can make the tunnel dark enough that she glows well. She's like an FCG, but static.

All this time I just thought that the ramp was going to ruin the cemetery, so I've been trying to come up with ways to incorporate it in a positive way.

 

[LairMistress]

I wish that we had good trees! We only have one on the property, and all we ever get from it is thin sticks. I'd better knock on wood now, because if we did get branches from it, they'd hit the garage, or our grouchy neighbor's wood fence! I do like that idea though!

I have a couple of blacklights that I usually use for our ghost lady. If I had her in the tunnel, I planned on putting one underneath the tunnel, below her. If I don't use her in the tunnel, I could just get a couple more of those lights, and still put at least one there, or one near the bottom, and one near the top underneath it.

 

[LairMistress]

Yes! I never answer the door, because people always contact me before showing up. But for some reason, I didn't think twice about going to the door when the lady rang the bell (although I chastised myself as I opened it, sure she was selling something). So I was doubly pleasantly surprised when she explained that she wanted to help.

I ran this idea by my other half tonight, and he actually likes the idea!

I like the skeleton funeral procession idea, too. I used to have 5 Bluckys and 2 more realistic skeletons (one Bucky, one Walgreens). I'm not sure if I still have all of the Blucky parts, but I can check. I'm trying not to spend a whole lot this year, so buying 3-4 more skeletons probably isn't going to happen, unless I get a super deal somewhere. I still like it, though!

What's more funny, is that we're across the street from an old funeral home!

 

[LairMistress]

I love that! I bought curtain rod hooks at Dollar Tree last year, specifically to hang curtains on the porch, and then I never did. I bought a couple of nice black lace Halloween curtain sets from a friend a few years ago, and I had a bunch of old rods laying around to hang them from.

I can't decide what would be best to build my temporary enclosure with. Originally I wanted to do plywood, because it's sturdy. Then I thought about pink foam (I don't see blue here?). Last, I considered just buying king size sheets and decorating them, but I wouldn't be able to hang anything from them, unless I leave my Dollar Tree portraits in their original frames. Storage wise, sheets would be the way to go! Then I could make two "layers"; one along the outside of the rails, to make it look a little more like a real enclosure (of course it wouldn't be very convincing, but I kind of like the semi-cheesy/vintage haunt look), and an inner layer of sheets decorated like wall paper. The rails of the porch would be "sandwiched" in between the sheets, and hidden that way.

My other half wants to permanently enclose the porch, and I didn't at first, because I thought that it would take away from the charm of the design (for Halloween as well as day to day). It would be easier to accomplish the haunted parlor if it were permanently enclosed, so I'm considering it.

The company that is installing the permanent wheelchair lift (provided that we actually need it), is talking about wanting to put it on the back porch because we use that as our main entrance. So eventually, we won't have a ramp or lift out front at all. There is still the possibility that my son could walk again, and not need the lift too, which would be awesome! They're kind of waiting to see how his recovery from this latest surgery goes, before they do anything, hence still having the ramp for awhile. And who knows, if he's walking by Halloween, we'll give the ramp back before then, but it seems like he won't be walking independently until closer to Christmas, if even then. He hasn't walked independently for almost two whole years, because of all of the surgeries and procedures that he's had. So, while I hope that he's walking independently soon, I also kind of hope that we get to keep the ramp through Halloween. Considering that it's so close, I really think that he will still need it then.

 

[LairMistress]

I'll have to get official measurements on the height, and choose the cheapest option from there. I will need to consider how easy it will be to store, too. I'm pretty much out of room already, and I'm adding PVC fence this year, too.