The Think Tank

As always, there are a number of friends and families who are unable to make it to see the Halloween display in person, so here a quick run around Crestfallen Manor.  I tried to point out some of the new things we built, and the good ol’ ones that needed to be rebuilt this year.

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/296573915[/vimeo]

This yeas big project for Halloween is to rebuild the columns and gate at the front of the yard.

Keep reading if you want want to hear all about how we made these, and all the cool little features we put into them!

We finished up the majority of decorating for Halloween tonight.  There are still a few things to do, and a few things that broke and need replacing (seems like about everything), but with a lot of rain in the forecast I wanted to get a video shot to show folks what things look like this year.

I built/rebuilt several things this year:  A new obelisk tombstone (I’ve wanted an obelisk in the yard for many years), a tall statue with a clock that I named Kronos, and I completely rebuilt the shed/crypt at the back of the yard, complete with a new engraved top stone and some fancy columns patterned after some pretty creepy ones in a French church.

We also added some drainage stuff to the side yard to prevent the flooding issues we had last year, as well as new lights in the back, because why not?  It’s not like we’ve got anything else going on.  All told I’ve been working on this pretty much every day since August 3.  It took a whole lot longer than I anticipated (as usual), but now that it’s done I’m pretty excited.

There are still a few things left to finish, but for those of you who can’t make it by the house this year, this video should give you a good idea of what we did.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/238713091[/vimeo]

Hi everyone.

Chris has begun making his new props , and repairing old ones for this years display.  He has redone the crypt.  He is working on a few new bits for it and they will be spectacular.  I know everyone will LOVE his new additions.

We always need help on Halloween night, specially setting up our Halloween Costumes.  We need someone to walk the groups through the display.  I admit the groups to limit numbers so the props have time to reset etc.  Shannon walks the groups through the display but it is faster ( and much easier for her) to have at least two doing that job,  So when one is helping them exit the back yard, the other can be starting them through the display.  Chris always needs help in the yard scaring the little people, thumping, making noises, etc.

Our friend Candace is coming this year and I am sure she will be helping too.  Please let us know if you can come and be an assistant ghoul.  🙂

updates will follow.

Here is a time lapse video from Halloween night.  We had about 300-400 kids, and as the video says, we had help from a number of people which really made the night go a lot smoother.  Poor Shannon ran herself silly guiding groups back and forth all night.

All in all it was a great time and a lot of kids had a lot of fun.  I think that makes the night a resounding success.

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/190973860[/vimeo]

It’s All Hallow’s Eve eve and Crestfallen Manor is ready to roll for the big night.  I’ve been planning on shooting a video walk-through all season, and tonight I finally got to it.  For all of you who are not able to join us tomorrow night, hopefully this video will give you a taste of what is happening.

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/189576513[/vimeo]

We finished up our pumpkin carving tonight, with a grand total of 27 jack o’lanterns.  I think they turned out excellent!  Thanks to everyone who came and helped: Joel & Sarah; Jim, Jamie & Camden; Alan; Marcie & Brett; Miranda & Kyle; and then of course Mom, Maure and Shannon.  Here is a peak at this years crop, and I’m sure there will be more to come after the big night tomorrow!

Mom submitted the video I made for the previous post and sent it to Channel 8 News, and they came out tonight and did a live spot at the house for KGW @ 7.  Here is the video of the segment.

KGW – Halloween 2013 from Christian Roberts-Olsen on Vimeo.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/77946448[/vimeo]Hi everyone!  As you know this is my favorite time of year.  We did a great job of getting all the Halloween stuff up pretty early this year.  I’ve continued to mess around with a few things, but everything has more or less been up and running since around the 10th of October.

Saturday night was our annual Pre Halloween Party, and it was a really nice night.  The weather cooperated beautifully, and we had about 20 people over the whole night.  Some of those folks were old friends, and several were folks from the neighborhood we met as they were admiring the display out front.  The other part to the Pre Party is to test out all the effects and props, and that went well too: the teeter-totter died and had to be fixed, and the air line for the Crypt Popper sprung a leak as well.  Hopefully that will be it now, and Halloween night can go without trouble.

For those of you who aren’t going to be able to make it over this year, I used my shiny new iPhone to shoot a video tour of our haunt.  Hopefully I will get some more on Halloween night with the hoots and hollers of scared kiddies, but this should suffice for the time being.

Talk to you soon!

Our Halloween Dry Run party was last night and I have to say that it was definitely a success.  However, because I was too busy taking part I did not get any pictures of the event at all.  I am hopeless in this regard.

Anyway, our Halloween preparations are almost complete now.  I had intended to do regular updates on here with pictures and videos showing our progress and highlighting our new projects for this year, but due to a number of issues I did not wind up with enough time to actually make any posts.  As such, I am going to detail everything in one single post.  Read through the bump for all the gory details and some videos of the  new elements.