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Viewing 19 - 27 out of 53 Blogs.
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Well the location we were hoping to have the haunt declined today. I am now searching desperately for a new one. I will have it somewhere. I may have to change the schedule, but I WILL haunt this year 
We now have 27 completed panels. The plywood is attached and they are ready for painting/decorating. I took a few pics yesterday, but I will have to upload them tomorrow. I have a busy day today. 
So I think I have found that the pallet frames I posted pics of are far sturdier than a typical 2X4 frame. I have been getting nice pallets that are made of something like 2X3s. They are thick and solid. I build a few frames with this stuff last night and they were OK, but wiggled a little when a shook them side-to-side. The pallet frames didn't budge. The 2X3 frame will be more solid once I attach the plywood to it. I will try to get pics today and/or tomorrow since we plan on actually attaching the plywood and getting all or nearly all of the walls built by the end of the weekend. Then we can work on furnishings such as a bookshelf, butcher table, coffins, etc. All made of pallet wood.
I am simply amazed! The same 3 guys got together again today. We gathered 20 more pallets, tore them apart, sawed them to length, and prepared them for the construction phase next weekend. I am happy to say that, with what we have already put together and what we did today, we have enough wood more all 80 panels. We are still a little short on plywood, but that is a task for next weekend. The hard part is over. Next week's plan (and what I can do alone during the week) is to attach the plywood to make the walls. Since we are using an abandoned house theme, it won't matter if we get a chance to paint them.
I am so excited that I can't help but share it with everyone. Not only do I have 25 panels done in one day, but I have overcome another restriction. The haunt has to be contained in a 40' X 40' area. I have laid out on graph paper 7 rooms and 3 hallways (plus an actor area) into a 40X40 space, and packed it with 12 scares so far. There will also be an outdoor cemetery as guests exit the house. There will be a couple more scares there before they are finally free of the murderous terror that haunts the house. The only problems left to overcome are giving the haunt a name and building it a website to advertise.
Sorry I haven't been uploading pics of the corpse hands and other projects that I am doing, but I am armpit-deep in building the haunt in time to open on October 3rd. If need be I can post-pone opening until October 10th, but I'd rather not
How much can 3 people get done on a haunt in 7 hours? 25 wall frames. All made from pallets. The pallets I found were made of wood cut 52" long and roughly the thickness of 2X4s. Today we tore apart about 9-10 of them, sawed the wood into 4' lengths, and nailed them together with braces in the centers. This made a total of 25 wall frames ready to screw plywood to (which I found in the same place as the pallets). Some will have cardboard attached to them about 3 layers thick. These will be out of reach of the guests.
I am just totally amazed what we accomplished today. Just a month ago or so I was getting frustrated and discouraged and thought I could never get an entire haunt build. My haunt will need only 80 panels so with the same 3 guys (and hopefully 2 more) next weekend we can get as many or more done. It appears that a haunt can be built in less than a month with 3 guys for next to nothing. I just hope that this inspires other would-be haunters who are like I am and dream of having their own haunt, but have little money to do so. All you need is imagination, a few friends, and a ton of pallet wood
Here is a pic of one of the cotton corpses:
I peeled the corpse off of the original skull this morning. Anyone who has ever done PM skulls before may have noticed that they aren't that strong, but these are quite rigid and strong. I am also working on paper mache/cotton corsed hands and arms. Those pics will be uploaded in a couple days. Oh, and the paste I used for these was flour and water. There is another pic in my Gallery.
Well...sort of. Many of you know about the cooton and latex corpsing technique. I cannot afford liquid latex, so I tried it with latex flooring adhesive from Walmart but that failed horribly. That stuff is like paste. Anyway, the new technique is to use paper mache paste instead latex. I did one up tonight (wow, it's 1am already!) and it is drying on my workbench (which also serves as our kitchen table  ) I will post pics tomorrow. More thunderstorms in our forecast so I will probaby be inside anyway.
AAAAAAH! Halloween is just around the corner! I am seeing products hit the stores. Time is running short!
Ok, exit panic mode. My pallet wall system idea may not be as quick to build as plywood and 2X4s, but I had the chance to put 4 together yesterday in just a few hours. My goal os 80 of them. That will give me plenty of walls, plus there wil some made of other materials where people won't bump them. The unfortunate thing is that the weather forcast says we are in for thunerstorms all week, today through Saturday and just plain old rain on Sunday. I need to buy one of those carport things or a tent of some sort...sheeesh!
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