PICTURES!!!!!

The cast of 2009










The entrance:


The "greeter":


Welcome:





The morgue:






The "mad scientist" area:




Dead bodies everywhere:




Turn the corner and see the cage:


Fun in the cage:








Trap door:


Butcher shop:

Year 2 - SUCCESS!! Recap:

So everything was completed about 2 days before. The day before opening night, I made a quick sign (after 2 prior attempts at something fancier) we perfected the lighting, and put up the movie screen. Of course, after working a long day, we were beat and unorganized as usual so we ended up starting a little closer to 730pm than 700. Still, after an hour and a half, we already had about 60 visitors. All made it out alive, and we only had 1 crier.

We then called it a night and headed off to Meg-O-Ween for about 2 hours. Got home around 12:15, got to bed around 1:00 and got up at 5:00 for work. FUN FUN! Worked until noon and then headed home to prepare for HALLOWEEN NIGHT!!!

WOW!!! Is all I can say. We started only about 10 - 15 minutes late this time. It was pretty chaotic because we were missing 2 of our cast, and the air tank was empty so we didn't know what to do with Blake! So we threw mom in the cage which left us no one after the bodies (but we didn't have an extra costume for Blake to do the corner which left it empty) and Gustavo went into the butcher shop. Around 7:45, Alyssa got off of work early, and with a line down the driveway and down the sidewalk to my neighbors house, I ran out, grabbed her, ran her in, got her changed and make-uped within 2 minutes flat - RECORD TIME! So we were back to a normal cast, and we enlisted Blake as a bouncer after 2 little kids went running through at high speed and knocked almost everything over, and then had a kid trip on her dress and fall after running out of the butcher shop.

After a while, we had everything down pat. Dad was finally able to get up there and take over for Gustavo and Blake took over for Felipe. Terrance and I had our timing down perfectly and our crowd control lost count of people around 150... which was still a good hour and a half before we closed. By the end of the night, we figure we had well over 250. We had only 2 criers, 1 absolutely WASTED man, and the cemetery box was the only one that started to fall apart during the night. Jeremy only got hit in the face once (This may be an improvement from Josh last year) and only 2 walls ALMOST fell down. The table in the coffin area had to be removed after about 4 people knocked over the lamp and one kid fell backward onto it when I scared him. Not too bad after the amount of people that went through there!

Last year, every 15 minutes or so, kids would stop coming and we would get a break. Last night, I think we only got 5 breaks all night, and we just held up the line and told them to give us 5 minutes to recover and repair whatever was being knocked down. And of course, whenever we would get a break, the line would start accumulating very fast and soon we would have a line down to the sidewalk again.

All in all, it was a great SUCCESS and we had a BLAST! All of us are losing our voices and my whole body hurts. I must've lost 10 lbs in the last 2 days!!! Now we have to head out and clean it all up today and tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who came out for supporting us! It was a great year for Haunting! We look forward till next year! HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(pictures coming soon - the video was too dark but we got some footage of the outside)

Help wanted!

Here we are only a week away!!! We're still at about 95% completion because we're lazy bums. Gustavo gets his gall bladder surgery tomorrow so I guess this weekend, I'm on my own. I know dad will be helping out though so hopefully we can finish up. Tomorrow is also the 3rd Annual Bunkoween, so they'll all get a sneak preview.

Anyways, we're looking for some serious help on clean up. The day after Halloween, we need to get the WHOLE THING taken down and stored away. Last time this took over a week, and it was only just the two of us. This time, we leave for Colombia just 4 days after Halloween. Of course after working all day, packing, and taking care of other things before our trip, we will have very very little time to get this done, so we have a goal to enlist as many people as possible to help us get it ALL done on Sunday. The more the merrier :)

We'll be in the paper on Saturday

If you get Florida Today, look for us in the Home&Garden section on Saturday, 17 Oct. No pictures since there wasn't enough time, but we'll be in the article :)

Front of the house is almost done. Thanks to Terrance and Blake who spent almost their whole 3-day-weekend with us working on the front of the house - building the butcher shop and the entrance. We have a few more things to do in the front (it still looks too plain to me) and then inside the house, we need to finish up the rooms and run the lighting/fogger. We need to be done by this weekend! Check out the pictures of the front of the house (and Gustavo's awesome new contacts!)


The neighbors love us!


We're adding boarded up windows and more creepy cloth this weekend.


The entrance is that little space on the left. The butcher shop is in the block box.


Close up of our awesome new entrance (almost finished)


Gustavo's new Halloween contacts. They're really creepy in person.

1 Month Away!!!

Great news! This past weekend, my parents came over as Gustavo and I were starting to put up the plastic on the walls. With my dad's help, we were able to complete ALL of it, along with re-enforce some walls and put up the drop frame. Basically, the structure is completely and totally finished (minus the butcher shop, which will be outside the house. I think if we put that up too soon, the HOA will want to kill us.) Anyways, the only thing left to do it decorate! That's the easy part. Tomorrow, I will spray paint any exposed white PVC, and I can start my decorating! It can literally be 100% completely done by this weekend! I'm so impressed by how quick set-up went this year.

Sunday, I go to Halloween Horror Nights, so hopefully I can get some cool decorating ideas! I was originally going to decorate the outside of the house this weekend, but I figured I'd spare Tavo's sanity for one more week, and change the timeline. I'll finish the inside of the haunted house first, then the outside, then the inside of our actual house. Then the week before Halloween, the butcher shop and entrance hallway will go up. I will continue to post pictures of the progress.

Unfortunately, we decided that there will be no "sneak previews" of the inside of the haunted house since we want everyone to be surprised and as scared as possible on Halloween night, so I will not post any pictures of the actual haunt from this point on. Hopefully you'll come by to see it in person. But don't worry, New York and Colombian friends and family - AFTER Halloween, there will be plenty of pictures, and at least 1 video :)

The official countdown has begun! Stay tuned!

Updates Updates!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last update!

Well, my lazy procrastinating butt finally finished the 4 bodies that we decided to keep. It ended up taking only maybe an hour, but I was just so lazy that I put it off for about 2 months and had foam all over the garage instead. I guess I had to give in and finish them when the walls started going up and everything was in the way. Anyway, they're finally done!

Last week, I also managed to get one of those enormous 12' monsters from Walgreens they had last year. Our store is only carrying two, and I got one as soon as they put them up (I'm sure they hated me for that - it took 2 ladders, 2 employees and about 30 minuts to get it down). Last year, Tavo said we spend way too much on Halloween (true) so I couldn't get the monster - even on sale. But I've been begging for one ever since, and since we didn't spend even close to as much this year, I was able to get it. The only bummer is we had to pay full price. Boo! But $29.99 - totally worth it!

Last weekend, dad came over because he was worried that the walls would turn into a big project, but it turns out they had the whole thing up in about 2 1/2 hours. I guess I measured pretty good, and it looks AWESOME! With no walls, we've already done a "walk thru" at least 30 times. It's so much better than last year. We're all pretty excited. Anyways, they only needed to make 1 trip to Lowes this time for more PVC connectors and PVC cement. Yesterday, we went around and glued the whole damn thing together. *sigh* so it looks like we got nothing done, but we actually did. I swear! I was just hoping to also get the wiring and black plastic up too, but that's okay. Maybe today, but probably not. We're having the outside of the house painted tomorrow and we haven't even bought paint yet. Ooops :)

Finally, Christmas had already started - in effing SEPTEMBER this year. Last year it was beginning of October. Actually, I've been seeing stuff since July *sigh*. Lucky for me, Kohl's already has all Halloween stuff up to 50% off, even though it's a month and a half away, because they needed to make room for their Christmas display. Sooooooo I was able to get a few things for the inside of the house this year. Yay!

Well, I've finally got picture updates too so you can see what I'm talking about! Enjoy!

The production line for the bodies:














And a sneak peek of the set-up before the plastic goes up...

Now reaching 4 of the 5 senses...

Of the 5 senses, haunted houses usually reach the sense of sight, hearing and sometimes feeling... but now there are wonderful business that now help us to scare our patrons with the sense of smell. Check these out!!!

Sinister Scents

Dark Candles

Hehe... SO exciting! I think I'm going to try them out this year. Should be interesting.

Now I just need to get motivated today so I can start building some bodies!!!

Needed:

- A Cooler
- Scrap wood (2x4's, 4x4's, plywood)
- Foam board
- Does anyone have an air compressor I can borrow?


I'll think of more :)

Foam and other stuff

So in the past week, I found the most awesome way to make a body which I stole from this picture. So I harassed Steven's Furniture warehouse for foam. Wasn't exactly as thick as I was expecting, but it'll do. I also harassed some people at work for old pallets and foam. I'll find a way to put them to good use.

This weekend, I'll start making bodies and will make as many as I can this upcoming week. The next weekend, we'll empty the attic and start organizing. I don't even remember what we have up there!!! Then the wall building will begin. *sigh* that's always the toughest part. Luckily we learned our lesson last year so we know to start early. Currently 67 days till Halloween. That's plenty of time. My goal is to be done with the garage by mid-October so I can start doing a little inside. I also have to take a weekend off of the garage to decorate the outside on the first weekend of October. I figure if we start this treachery by mid-Sept, we should be okay... as long as any props are completed before we start building.

OH! I received THIS awesome stuff in the mail yesterday (Only, I bought it while it was on clearance!). "What for?", you ask? Well THIS is my inspiration :)

Till next time...

Joining the world of blogging

After family and friends repeatedly ask the when/who/hows and why's of our dimented Halloween Haunted House, I decided to join the blog world and share our adventure this year.

I know it's only August, but Halloween season has begun. The bloggers are actively sharing "how-to's" and sale prices on hauntworld.com, floridahaunters.com, halloweenforum.com and hauntforum.com. I already made 3 trips to dollar tree, 1 trip to big lots and about 5 trips to thrift shops in the area looking for goodies for this years haunt. For us, this years theme is a corrupt morgue that is behind a haunted cemetary. I'm really excited about it. Tavo isn't too thrilled to start building just yet, but I have already designed the layout and plans and have started deciding what props we need and where. Last year was just our trial year, so let's see if we can REALLY go bigger and better.

Next time, I'll post my "wish list" of projects. It's quite lengthy. I'm not sure if we'll have room to store them, the energy to build them or the money for the supplies. Haha! Bring it on, 2009!!!