Added A Window to the Mausoleum!

Hey guys,

So, we've been managing to get some work done this week.

Yesterday we attached one of the windows Lynn made (I posted a pic a while back) to the Mausoleum.

See...

Here we added a strand of LED lights to the interior of the window.

A little industrial Velcro an the window is attached.

Here's a closeup.

And here's the window at night!

And there you go.

So, we only ran the lights around the brickwork because we didn't want them to light up the entire street.

Even though they're turned all the way down, they're still a little brighter than I would like, but it's gonna look brilliant (no pun intended) so all's good.

We also changed the lights from blue, which you see in the first pic, to yellow, which you may be able to tell from the last pic. The yellow allows the color of the window to show up way better than the blue did. With the blue, everything looked, well, kinda blue.

That said, we're still not done.

We still need to add some brickwork around the newly installed window. We can't have all that Velcro showing. The bricks will be painted, then attached on top of the Plexiglas. The intention is that the window will removable so we can replace the lights when needed, but I'm not entirely sure it's gonna be that simple. Foam, glued to Plexiglas attached by industrial Velcro. Should be interesting trying to remove it without breaking anything.

We also have the other window to do but, once that's done, the Mausoleum will be so very close to finished!

And not a moment too soon as it turns out.

More updates to come.

Later!

Another Hard Working Weekend!

Hey guys,

Well, it was another weekend of working on the Hollow!

We finally started moving tombstones into the graveyard.  Now it no longer looks as though we thought our front yard needed a complete pathway remake!

Okay, I took this pic after installing the sign but before adding the tombstones so you'll just have to  trust me, they're there!

We also finished painting and aging the new Mausoleum!

Now all we have to do is attache the stained glass windows and we'll be, for the most part, done building the Mausoleum.

Then all we have to do is break it all down and move it out front, get the new prop for the mausoleum working, fix up any props that broke last year, add lighting to the front yard, run pneumatic lines for the props, put all the remaining props out front, lay down the mulch on the pathway and hay everywhere else, build a few sarcophagi to hide the fog machines, install the fog machines, clean up the house for the party and get all dressed up.

As always, we're gonna need a vacation when all this is over.

I'll have more pics later this week.

Later!

Mausoleum Progressing!

Hey everyone,

We've been making great progress on the new Mausoleum.

First thing I had to do this last week was build the Ridge Cap for the roof.  This was pretty simple.

I used two strips of the rubber floor molding you see if office buildings and tiled it using the same foam and process I used on the rest of the roof.  Here is the start of the process.

And here it is finished.

And here it is attached to the roof with screws. It took a lot of screws to hold it in place and that will be a bit of a bother when it comes time to remove it for break down but I can't argue with the results. I think it looks pretty good. After this we painted it to match the roof.

And here is the Mausoleum all painted with the base coat and put back together with the cross and Hollinger Family Crest attached.

And here it is with the brick treatment.

And a closer look.

A closeup of the Crest and Cross.

And the backside with an aging glaze. Eventually, all the bricks will look like this!

And there you go!

Once all the painting is complete we will finish off the interior with black curtains and I will build a gate for the door.

I'll have pics when that is done.

Later!

Started Painting the Mausoleum!

Hey guys,

Wow! Two posts in one week!

We started painting the Mausoleum yesterday.

Got the first coat of paint on the roof!

Mausoleum broken down.

Before.

After!

And a close up...

And there you go!

We've only got the first coat of paint on the roof. We still have to paint the underside black, as that is the interior of the Mausoleum, and do a second coat of paint of both the gray and the black.

Then, of course, on to the rest of the Mausoleum.

What will that entail? We're going to lay down a light gray color, for the mortar, and then paint each individual brick.

So, we still have quite a ways to go, but I thought I'd at least let you know we've started.

Later!

Finished Building the Mausoleum!

Hey guys!

Well, it took us a weekend longer than we planned (last weekend didn't really give us a lot of free time) but we finally finished the construction of the new Mausoleum!

Don't get too excited.  We still have to paint, add the windows and age it up but, the construction is finally done.

Have a look...

Stevie the Dog is very excited about her new doghouse!

So, as I said, we still have to add the windows and paint it.  I also need to construct a gate for the entrance but it is coming along nicely and we're very excited.

This week we hope to paint it so hopefully this time next week I'll have those pics to show you.

Later!

Moving Forward on the Mausoleum!

Hey guys,

Again, we've been extremely busy working on the Mausoleum.

So, what progress have we made?

We've (and by "we" I mean Lynn) finished distressing the bricks. She did this by using a hot knife on the edges to give it that "worn down" look and to create the cracks as well as finished off the brick by wetting the foam and applying a hot gun until she got the desired effect. These pictures don't do it justice. It looks fantastic!

And we've (and this time I mean the both of us) started caulking between the bricks to add the "mortar".

Now, that may not seem like a lot but believe me, this has been very time consuming. Also, a little more expensive than I originally planned. I will go into the cost of this "little" project in a later post. I don't want to bum myself out right now.  :)

This weekend we hope to finish the caulking and we have some other projects we're working on, of which I will tell you about those later as well.

So, see you later!

Mausoleum Update!

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of updates but we've been very busy and working exceptionally hard on the new Mausoleum!

When I last posted we still didn't know how we wanted to do the exterior. We finally decided to do a brick exterior with a slate roof.

Great! So, where are we now?

Well, We've finished the roof, started distressing the bricks and are making customized stained glass windows!

So, as you can see, we've cut 3"x 8" sections of a roll of very thin foam (I have no idea what it's actual purpose is meant for but Home Depot sold it for under $6 for a giant roll) and laid down each individual piece as though they were slate.

The finished roof. Admittedly, the glue is a little sloppy but you won't see it once we've painted everything!

Close up on the first part of the distressing of the bricks.

Full shot of the first part of brick distressing.

My wife is a genius! This is the first stained glass window she's ever made. The second one is even better!

And there you go!

So far everything looks great, but we are far from done.

We have the second part of the brick distressing before we add the "mortar" between the bricks. We still have to finish the interior and then we have to paint.

Also, you'll notice the windows don't go through the walls. That's because we need the interior of the mausoleum to be as dark as we can make it. That said, we want the windows to light up a little up to show them off. We're working on a plan to do that and I'll show you what we come up with later.

I also don't know if the roof looks like slate tile. To me, it looks like classic roofing shingles. We'll have to see what we can do with painting. I don't think we can pull off slate so we may just paint the roof gray.

Anyway, that's where we are at the moment.

Plus, we still have all the other things we've got planned. I'll tell you more about that some other time.

Later!

2015 Season is Here!

Hey everyone!

It's August and although this is my first post we've been working on the Hollow for a couple of weeks now!

So, what have we been doing?

We're building a new mausoleum.  Why you ask?  Cause the old one is old, and falling apart and basically weights a ton and it's getting harder and harder to move and set up as I get older and older.

I built that first mausoleum out of 2x2's, 1/2 inch plywood with a 2x6 base.  Even though it broke down into separate components each component still weighs quite a bit.  The advantage is that we never had to worry about it blowing over, but that was the only advantage.

The new mausoleum is built out of 1x2's, glued and screwed, with a foam exterior.  To give credit where it is due, we used TK421's Haunted Hollow Mausoleum Build's design, with a few modifications.  I used 2 rails across the top peak and added extra rails to the roof sections.  I glue and screw all of my builds for better adhesion to include when attaching the foam.  I've found that screwing the foam after gluing helps ensure all of the surface area of the foam glues properly to the rails.

Really? Why didn't I move the mausoleum a foot to the right before taking this picture? That post totally blocks the view! 

See? I can move it to the right to avoid the post!

Fancy! This mausoleum will have a chandelier. 

Now, this is where we stop following TK421's design.  We're gonna decorate the exterior our own way.  Not because we don't like TK421's design.  We love it!  It's absolutely brilliant but we don't' want to blatantly rip him off.  That would be rude!  Not completely sure what we're gonna do to finish it off, but we'll think of something and, of course, will post pictures.

So, what else do we have planned for this year?

We're gonna upgrade our pneumatic props to include sound in their design as apposed to trying to sync the sound using MP3 players.  We're also going to amplify the sound so you can hear it better.

Of course, we're adding a new pneumatic prop this year and it will be added to the new mausoleum.  What are we doing?  More on that later.  :)

We also will be continuing our tombstone build with the idea being to replace all store bought tombstones with homemade tombstones that bear family names.

We will be building decayed sarcophagi to hide our fog machines.  In the past, we've hidden the fog machines around the perimeter and although this was fine it always took a while for the fog to proliferate throughout the cemetery.  Hopefully, putting the fog machines in the middle of the cemetery and hiding them will speed this process along.  Also, the fog bleeding through the sarcophagi should look pretty cool!

This is all just off the top of my head.  We still have to sit down and write up a list of everything we want to do.  I'll show you that later as we still have yet to do it.

That said, I hope it's obvious we have huge plans for this year.

I'm so glad the haunting season has officially started.  More to come so check back every now and then.

This year should be a lot of fun.

Later!