Halloween Discussion Forums, Costumes, Horror!

Here's the Pirate Ship we did in the Halloween of '07. The ship was 36ft long and 25ft tall. It consisted of quarter bow of the ship up front with the cannon hole you walk through. Then into the ship with all the rigging and up to the captains quarters. A helm with a phantom at it, dead pirates everywhere and into the captains quarters themself. On the left was the captain at his desk, booty, maps, goblets and treasure chest. On the right was the bookcase with all the rest of his adventure seeking gear and a globe. The whole inside consisted of candlelight only. So when you walked in, everything was dim and left to your imagination to put together. All the rigging was hand tied.









Sorry for the pictures being flipped... they're turned the right way in photobucket!
If you'd like more upclose pics, let me know. There are so many!

These are great! I like the detail and the construction. What's your budget for these set pieces?

I envy the fact that you have your brothers to help. I try to enlist people every fall, but it's tough to get schedules worked out. Inevitably, the one day I do get some friends over to help, it rains and rains.

Do you have any pics of the whole set from the street? I'd love to see more of the complete ship.

Thanks for the pics -- great stuff!

Wow! Look at that! Can you come to my house and make something? I'm only kidding. But you have a great haunt!

I have always thought that I was kidnapped by Gypsies and given to the people who raised me.

Is your family missing a brother?

Here's the only pic I found that showed the grand scale. there are others, but not from an angle you can see the full bow.... sorry...
the first red arrow on the left is the tip of the bow point. the second is where the bow starts and the third red arrow is where the ship begins from the house. 36ft long total.

Our budget isn't very big. We actually look around and ask people for their old scrap wood and paint and such. The landfill, where it recycles some of it's materials, was able to provide us with the brown paint and such for free! Our Saloon, if I can remember correctly, ran us around.... $1500 total. A lot of the old wood was donated to us from some friends on an old farm. Was also handy to have an old broken down rodeo place behind our house to salvage for old wood, tree posts and such. I can't remember the cost of the Ship but the majority of the smaller hemp rope was purchased at Biglots!

I'm already a part of a set of triplets and an older brother, so another brother could be possible, lol. It's nice to have them around, but a majority of the time they'd be working, so I'd have to pop out a good majority of the smaller things by myself.

We're always lookin for an oppurtunity. If anyone knows of anyone that has a little extra money or so, lol, or even a list of contacts I can get a hold of to make a haunted house for our city or flagstaff, that'd be awesome. If only I won the lottery!

It's beautiful work. The old west was gorgeous.

I put up a haunted tower and turn the garage into an apothecary. Front yard is a graveyard and the end of the driveway is the pumpkin patch and cider shack.



This year, with Halloween landing on a Saturday night, I really want to pull out all the stops. I'm still brainstorming themes, but I know I want to build more tombstones and buy a Light-o-rama kit to animate the pumpkin patch and sync up music.

If I have the time, I want to build a crypt entrance or mausoleum to put in the graveyard, and some more substantial obelisks.

I'm open to ideas.

TK I like your yard show us more pix, cider shack is a great idea!

Nice! Your house seems to be the perfect location for Halloween setup. I really love how you did the deck with one side broken and one side that goes to the wheel. The detail of the items in the rooms is cool too.

You and your brothers have imagination, that's for certain!

I could look at your Halloween yard haunts all day...

Any plans for 2009?

I dig the pirate ship and theme too, well done!
Flagstaff eh? I'm from Prescott originally, kinda miss the ole territory.
Here's a few vid's to drool on and maybe get some inspiration for next year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6owvbgTnHE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyS82g1TW0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6iP2XrYZf0

Holy cow, well I guess you can pump something out that awesome when you have a lot of money! Thanks Litemare! The yard with the water is out of control! I wonder if the HOA or OSHA got on them. We got busted one time for having a board for a roof for our fort in our backyard when I was a kid, so ever since we've been iffy with going over the top. Though we did have a sign stating whatever happens to you when you come in, is not our fault if you are hurt. Of course there was nothing to intentionally harm them, but you know ppl now adays....
But holy wow, what'd I'd kill to be able to do that! It bites though 'cause in Flagstaff the water has potential of freezing before halloween...
A theme for next year.... well we have two choices, the traditional haunted house, old creeky floors, ghosts, skeletons, tombstones and such, with the triplet twist, or go with an Ancient Egyptian tomb. The only problem with the Egypt thing is the money once again.
We're so picky on the detail and making it as real as possible, that if I'm missing something or not enough of something I don't feel it was a good job.
Anyone know of a place to pick up an awesome Light Organ for relatively cheap?

TK421 (awesome name btw), our first front yard haunt was a Mausoleum, a small simple thing but still a mausoleum! Decorating the inside is always the best, lots of spiders and skulls! Where is that... hmm... lol. If it doesn't rain alot where you live when you build your haunt, we used those big Quikrete tubes for concrete forms you'd get at home depot for the columns. When they get wet though they fall apart. Ours did, but we used it to our advantage by letting them bend and look crippled. Put a 2x4 in the middle and it was alright! U can never go wrong with pumpkins! Maybe integrate them into the crypt, stone pumpkin pillars?

Mr.PumpkinGrin. I actually live in the Puget Sound (Seattle area) so rain is definitely a part of Halloween. I have to make sure everything I do is waterproof and/or sealed. Last year I started building tombstones out of the 2in foam, and they look fantastic! I think I might actually build a mausoleum out of the same material. It will be light weight, easy to carve and store, and easy to detail.

If you have any pics of prior haunts, crypts, or mausoleums, please share!

Mr.PumpkinGrin wrote:Anyone know of a place to pick up an awesome Light Organ for relatively cheap?

You might check out Craig's List
http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/us/az Click on your area. Look under the "FOR SALE" Header. There's a category called "FREE". You guys should be able to find an assortment of free building supplies there. I've seen hospital beds, couches, televisions, boxes, dirt, ... etc. One man's trash an' all that....

I've seen lightweight pillar assemblies somewhere that are also weatherproof... I'll have to see if I can find where that was.... probably won't have time, though. =/

Dang! Just took a look at the "Free" section of CraigsList. There's a ton of stuff out there -- some good, some bad. Now I just need to think of a strong theme for this year.

I just rebuilt my deck, so I have all the old decking stored in the backyard. I was thinking of building a boardwalk for people to walk onm which would take them on a "tour" of the yard haunt.

Yeah, having something like a boardwalk rules for a yard haunt. It keeps people where you want them and when you do it right, you don't have to worry about uneven pathways for tripping hazards and such. That and they're just fun to make. I'll have to check out the free section, is there really that much stuff?