10/16/2007 23:01:32

Update 10/16
 
Haunt builders- Jason, Stephanie, & Myself
Weather in S. MN- 50o & rainy
 
We had planned to work on the maze for just a few hours tonight. My work ran very late & I didn't get out of there till 5:30pm. Had to stop to gas up the truck & pickup something to eat on the way. Didn't get out there til after 7pm, eek! Jason & Steph. had been working on stuff since 6pm. Plan was to install more lighting throughout the maze. We added light weight chains to a long hallway that was guarded by a strobe light (set off by a motion detector). The length & placement was figured out & the chains were installed overhead. There really isn't any way you can avoid them, except to crawl under them. A heavy set of chains were attached to a wall nearby for looks. We camouflaged a walk way thru a tunnel/cave & disguised to blend in to it's surroundings. Patrons will find this year's maze very challenging!  
 
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10/14/2007 01:24:45

Update 10/13

Haunt builders- Jason, Steph, Stephanie, Tori, Alex, Ronald, & Myself

Weather in Southern MN- 60o - 65o, 50% chance of rain

Today I brought down another 18 1/2 in. pvc (at a $1.09 each plus tax), 2 furring strips, & 2 cans of hammered silver grey spray paint (at $5 a can). That's another $50 for the holding cell, a total of $100 in supplies. Ronald gave me $10 cash to get $10 worth of bars for the cell. Since the bars were spaced very far a part. I finished assemblying the cell bars & hauled them out to be painted. The girls spray painted the holding cell bars on both sides. I let them dry for a bit before installing them. Also installed blocks to the joining sections of the revolving door/wall to make it more sturdy.

 Ronald worked on two project areas- butcher/ torture  shop, & the mirror room.
 Jason worked on making the passages smaller & bracing them.
 We ran long heavy duty extension cords over head to a few key areas that need power for lighting or effects. Took a quick supper break, then back to work.

 Was time to place the tarps over the maze. We've got 3 20x30 green/brown tarps & 1 blue tarp. The maze is longer & wider this year & we weren't sure it we had enough to cover it entirely. Unfolding the tarps & carefully spreading them out over head is quite a task & time consuming. It's not always easy to tell if we have it placed right according to the width & length of the maze vs the tarp. Some how luck was with us, & the 4 tarps covered almost all the areas but, the holding cell. But that's ok, we wanted the height of the bars to be impressive.
 Some lighting was installed tonight in two areas, holding cell & tunnel/cave. Put up a string of flicker flame candles along the top edge of the cell. I had bought 2 sets of Phillips Orange led lights. I experimented with one set & plugged it into a flasher coil plug. Nothing happened to my surprise. Then we tried plugging them into a outlet box w/ a dimmer wired to it. When the lights were dimmed down, they began to pulse or flicker. We decided to use them for the top of the long tunnel/cave for lighting (but dimmed down). Pictures were taken through out the day of our progress & we wrapped things up. Had worked from 2pm - 10pm. There is much more things to do before the party, lighting, decorating, sound, etc.

P.S. Special thanks to my Father & Step Mother for the donation of: extra light bulbs & Halloween props (hanging bat, 2 rubber snakes, & 2 flying prop bats).

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10/07/2007 18:37:33

Oct. 06 new pics

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b203/Haunt_Master/Maze%2007/