The Haunt at Hellizondo

Oh man. WordPress for Android saves my live blogs as a draft so you can never see them.

Ok this live blogging sounded cool, but We have so much to do it’s making me insane. Really! I am mad all the time. The prop nazi is going blitzkrieg!

Again no pics today, but I’ll put some up tomorrow. Promise.

My laptop threw a fit on the day I was going to set up the 3 axis skull. It’s fine now, it’s a dumb glitch, but it set me off. I was a mad man.

So I got some 2×2′s at the Do-It Center, threw em at Joe and told him to frame out some walls for me! Then I set to weathering the booths. I was a flurry and fury of paint. Thanks to today’s extreme lack of humidity and face cracking dryness, My washes dried in minutes instead of hours. I got all the booths done. I also got covered in paint, since I used a roller to apply a wash. Think of a wet dog shaking it out.

I made a to-do list for everyone but me, and everyone got it almost all done (except technical stuff I would have to show them).

All in all Tuesday and Wednesday were good. Thursday, we’ll see.

On Monday I worked non stop. I did not eat lunch. I did not take pictures. 9 hours of straight work.

I built the cabinet for the museum of oddities. I also re-did the FCG ribs so that they can be mounted under the eaves of the house so that they will be out of the rain. I also painted some zombies. Joe painted the scare Booth and helped me here and there.

Now some pics!

Today got off to a slow start but enough got done to still call it a great success. No completed props to show yet, but a lot of construction and assembly got done.

It was a lot of wait and go work. We got the stencils painted onto the Scarousel, but not as much work as we wanted to due to time. If there is time at the end of the week, I’ll add more flourishes. Now look in the background, up on the Hedge. While we were working on building stuff, Tricia started to wrap up her conjoined twins. She skipped a step or two in normal construction, but it looks so freaky you’ll cry a little when you see it finished.

Due to bad weather, both today and forecasted for the week, we didn’t put up the full scarousel. Rain and highwinds are doom for any prop, so we leveled and put up the sturdiest parts.

Here is where we were busy running errands and working like mad so no one thought to take pictures.

Here is what we got finished:

• We put up the walkthrough head.
• We built the drop panel wall of the “scare booth” that goes behind Rasputin’s mouth.
• I cut out the decorative facade for the Museum of Oddities with a scrollsaw
• Kendra turned an old groundbreaker into a puppet

Then it started raining around 4pm. So we put away most of the stuff, and I finished installing the wall with the drop panel while Kendra went to the store and bought some plastic sheeting.

Then we covered everything in sheeting. We had a sheet of 1/2 plywood that got wet this week. It is so warped, that no of it is usable. So we paid the money to protect all of our work so far. Wednesday is when everyone is coming back to finish setitng up. So I bet by wednesday night you will see the Scarousel totally done, weather permitting.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are props all over the house and in the backyard too. And then more. At my house. Oh joy!

Ok first off Live blogging sounds cool but it means you have to stop working to do it. No Bueno.

From here on out I’ll live blog anything that gets finished and looks cool. As in finished like it will look in the haunt.

Otherwise I will do a daily post each evening.

Today was a productive day!

Zac and I got the frame up for the black light area with out falling off the ladder. However I almost destroyed the fountain. Almost. Good thing I shot a video of how it went together last year before we took it apart.

Bill came over today to help (Kendra, Zac, Courtney, and Colleana’s dad). He kicked ass! Usually he’s a real talker so I put a brush in his hand and said talk to these booths! He painted almost all three by himself. Yay Bill!

Patty, Courtney, Tricia, and Kendra attended to blinging the f**k out of the Scarousel today. Tomorrow it gets put together. The bedazzlement is beyond belief!

Joe and I wrapped the five  light poles with electricians tape to make them a little more burton/carnivalesque.

Zac made two more meat hooks for our goriest display yet. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile Jay patiently laid down some fine lines of black to finish off the painting of the Scarousel.