Back for Halloween 2018!

Hey everyone,

Long time, no blog.

Our posts over the last several years has been less and less, and the reason you don't see any entries for 2017 is because we did not build the Hollow last year.  :(

This was for a handful of reasons.  First, 2016 whipped us so badly that when we emptied the Hollow that year, we simply threw everything in the backyard and never put anything away.  Seriously, for an entire year, our backyard looked like a Halloween salvage yard.

Of course, we're in the Dallas Texas suburb of Mesquite, and a year of North Texas weather, extreme rain and extreme sun, killed about half or props.  Literally.  Killed them.  Like, no repairing them, we had no choice but to throw them away. 

We had no idea to the extent of the damage until we took stock of everything in August of 2017.  At that time, it was apparent we did not have enough time to replace everything, let alone build new props.  The wind immediately left our sails. 

Fast forward to today, and we still haven't started replacing or building anything new, but that is about to change.  I give you the plans for the 2018 Hollinger Hollow Mausoleum!

Here's the bones!

And here is what she'll look like when completed!

Yes, our second mausoleum was completely destroyed and we must replace it. 

The good news is that the second mausoleum was a big upgrade from the first one, and this one will be an upgrade of the second.  I'm taking everything I learned from and wished I'd done from the second and will do it here.  The framework will, of course, be glued and screwed and built from pressure treated 2x2's for the framework and pressure treated 4x4's for the floor.  This should make sure the mausoleum is around for several years, even if left out in the weather, which I don't plan to ever do again.  The exterior will be attached with super Velcro strips for easy building and breaking down of the foam pieces.   It's going to be the most expensive mausoleum to date, and because of that, may keep us from building anything new this year.

We have a list of other things we want to accomplish this year, and I will post that later.

For now, I just want everyone to know we are back, and to keep checking here for updates!

Later.

Wow! Where has the time gone?

Hey guys,

Well, we're in the middle of October and this is the first post of 2016.

I'm sorry for the lack of updates, to include last year when we stopped blogging prior to Halloween and didn't even post a walk through video (which we never filmed).

It's not that we are getting tired of Halloween.  Well, we're tired, but not for anything Halloween.  Lynn and I are just incredibly busy and Halloween this year is really feeling the affects of that.

Still, it's not like we're gonna pass on Halloween this year.  It is still happening, but not to the extent of previous years.

So, what do I mean by that?  Basically, we're not going to add anything new to the Hollow this year.  We've been doing Hollinger Hollow since 2002 and blogging about it since 2010, every year getting bigger than the last.  Now, with time not on our side, Lynn and I looked around and saw a lot of aging props.

That's when we decided to work on fixing our current props in place of creating anything new.

That said, it's not like things aren't changing.  Concerning our toughest decision, we decided to retire the bridge from the Hollow this year.  It's in really bad shape and restoring it just isn't an option.  We need a new one and simply don't have the time to build it.  So, we need to put fencing where the bridge used to be.

And that means...

42, 40" and 36, 36" 1/2" PVC pipes plus 12 1x2" furring strips equals...

... 6 new fences!

It will take 6 new "iron" fences to replace the bridge.  As you can see, we've built them.  Now we just need to paint them.

We also have extra furring strips to replace some of the rails on the old fences that have really been abused over the years.  Although the PVC can be re-purposed, the wood will need to be replaced and painted.

We are also sanding down the columns and re-finishing them.

After sanding down the flaking paint.

Left column, newly painted.  Right column, about to be re-finished

The great thing about sanding these down and re-finishing them is that they will, for the first time in Hollow history, be painted to look the same. You see, these columns were built over 3 different Halloweens and therefore their color never really quite matched.

We also plan to repair and bring back the Ground Breaker prop.  We've had him for a couple of years but on the first year he broke and we never got him working in time to put him out last year.  So, in a weird way, putting him out this year is kind of like adding a new prop.

That's where we are at the moment.  I'll be honest, I don't know how many posts this year will have.  I will do my best to have a couple more this year as well as a walk through video so please be patient with us this year and we will hopefully make up for this next year.

Talk to you later!

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!

Last Post for 2014!

Hey guys,

Alright. So, as the title suggests, this will probably be my last posting for the year and I thought I'd go over a couple of things.

First, I thought I'd talk about what our goals for the year were and discuss if they were accomplished.

1. Completely automate the pneumatic props. Yes! We did it! All four of our pneumatic props, Coffin Guy, Andersan the Tombstone Breaker, Vampire in a box and the newly constructed Ground Popper were completely automated. I programmed them using PicoBoo Prop Controllers and they worked flawlessly.
2. Build a new pneumatic prop. Yes! The Ground Breaker was awesome, but he did have his challenges. He didn't move as violently as I wanted him to. The reason was faulty building on my part. I failed to realize how all that violent motion would impact the prop and less than an hour into the evening he broke! He broke his wrist and threw out the alignment in his back. I was able to fix this but I had to slow him down considerably to manage operation throughout the rest of the night. This made him look less scary in my mind but people seemed genuinely freaked out by him.
3. Build new column toppers to replace the destroyed ones from last year. Yes! We built them and they looked brilliant.
4. Build a New, Old Gate. Kinda! We did build most of the new gate, but in the end, didn't have time to build the "gate" part of the gate. So, what we ended up with was a new Hollinger Hollow Cemetery sign. As it turned out, the sign looked so good we may not bother to make it a gate next year so I'm gonna say this was accomplished.  :)
5. All original tombstones. No, we didn't replace all the store bought tombstones. This goal was, in truth, not achievable. We have a lot of store bought tombstones and the Hollow is pretty big. Add that to the level of detail Lynn is putting into her tombstones and there was no way we were going to be able to replace all the store bought ones. I figure in about two or three more Halloweens all the tombstones will have family names on them.
6. Fix the tree. Well, no, but it really didn't need fixing. Yes, it still is leaning more than I would like, but the tree actually looked pretty good. So, we just put it in the yard and you can see it in the video walkthroughs. So, nothing really to fix here.

Second, I'd like to share some thoughts on the year.  Mostly, because this blog is my way of taking notes for next year!

As you can see above, we really did finish everything I thought was important at the beginning of the year. So, as far as getting everything done that we thought was important to having a great year then this year was one of our best.

I'll even go further by adding to the list of things done. For the first time ever, our props had sound! The Twins Tombstone had the sound of ghost babies crying. Ground Popper sounded like a struggling zombie. Vampire in a Box (aka Sarcophagus Guy) sounded like a demon trying to escape. Coffin Guy screamed like a crazy man when he opened his casket lid. We even got the Projector Tombstone working, sound and all.

But, there were some flaws. 

The sounds weren't nearly loud enough. We'll have to figure out a way to amplify the sounds if they are ever going to add to the scare. 

Of course, I already talked about how the Ground Popper broke an hour into operation and we had to slow him down to keep him from breaking again. We had a similar problem with Vampire in a Box. His lid was opening and closing so fast that the sound of the wooden lid slamming on the wooded frame made conversation on the bridge impossible. To counter that, I had to slow down how often the lid opened and closed. Again, something that should have been scary was a little less scary due to a lack of planning. To counter that, Coffin Guy and Andersan the Tombstone Breaker weren't fast enough and I would have sped them up but that would have thrown off the sync in the sound so I left them alone. Another case of scary not being scary enough.

Then there is the matter of the turnout. Hollinger Hollow has in past years had anywhere between 600 to 1000 visitors. Sadly, this year, we came in around 200 to 300 people. Last year, we were so excited because Halloween was on a Friday this year. We never for one minute stopped to think about how Friday night in Texas is reserved for High School Varsity Football. 

That's right. I'm afraid that Friday Night Lights caused us to have a terrible turnout at the Hollow this year. The worst part is that despite the things I listed above, this truly had the makings to be our best year to date. And that is leaving something of a hole in my happy feeling for all the great things we did this year.

But, no worries. These things happen. Everything I've mentioned as needing work are easily fixed and we already have so many ideas for what to do next year.

So, see you in August, when the blog will once again become active and we will lay out what we plan on doing for Hollinger Hollow 2015!

See you then!

A Couple More Videos!

Hey everyone!

I though as long as I was at it I would add a couple more videos we did last week.

The first is a daytime walkthrough of the Hollow on Halloween. Everything is in place, the power and air lines are connected, we're ready to go.

The reason I want to show you this is just to emphasize how different things look in the daytime.

But I'll let you be the judge...




And that's what everything looks like in the daylight.

The second video is of the Coffin Guy.  I recorded this right after programming him and I thought I'd show you this because I'm not sure you've ever really gotten a good look at him.

So, here he is...




And there you go.

Tomorrow, I will share my thoughts on the year.  I think it was one of our most successful when considering everything we set out to do. Too bad we had so few trick-or-treaters this year.

More on that later.

2014 Walk Through Video!

Hey guys,

Here it is, the 2014 Hollinger Hallow Walk Through Video!

Before I show it, I want to let you know about the sounds I added.

Of course, I always do some sort of ambient sound on these videos. One thing that is different this year is that several of our props had sounds! I didn't want to lose that on the walk through video but I also didn't want to put you through all the talking that was going on during the video shoot. So, I added the actual sounds used for the props to the video. The props that have sound are the Twins Tombstone, The Grave Popper, Vampire in a Box, Coffin Guy and Andersan the Tombstone Breaker. The Projection Tombstone also has sound but I somehow left that off this video and in an attempt to get this video posted today I decided not to go back and add it.

So, here's the video...





And there you go.

I will also be adding a daytime walk through as well as making some comments on how this year went later on.

So, please keep checking in on the blog for a couple more days.

Talk to you later!

Pics From Last Week!

Hey everyone,

Wow! What a week! We still haven't finished cleaning everything up!

I will share my thoughts on this year in a later post. What I want to do here is hit you with some of the pics we took.

So, here we go...

The Grave Popper Completed! (We still don't have a name for him yet)

Grave Poppers tombstone.

Our new sign installed!

One of our new, silly tombstones.

Lynn's costume in the light!

Lynn's costume in the dark!

The new column topper.

A look at the toppers placed at the exit.

The Skulls Tombstone!

A last second addition, made from things we had lying around.

The Twins Tombstone. Wait until you see it in the walk through video!

And everything in the backyard November 1st.  Well, most things.

And there you have it. Just some pics we took the week of (and the day after) Halloween.

Next up, the walk through!

Later!

Were'd That Cemetery Come From?

Hey guys,

As promised, I started setting up the Hollow over the weekend.

Here are some pics...

The entrance.

Further down the sidewalk.

Coming up on the exit.

For some reason, I'm walking through the Hollow backwards.

The Bridge

The Hell Hole. It really does look better at night, all lit up with a charred skeleton climbing out.

The Mausoleum.

Entering the Hollow.

Yeah, for some reason, when I took the pics, I walked through the Hollow backwards. That's to say, I entered through the exit. Not really sure why I did that. I guess I was tired and not thinking. And, because of the way I'm facing, I can't flip the order of the pics because that looks odd.

But, I guess the point of this post is to show you that we've finally started setting up the display and I guess this does that.

You may have noticed that the new tombstones aren't in place yet. That's simply because they were getting a second coating of polyurethane and couldn't be put out front yet. Not to worry, they will be out front shortly.

So, later this week I will be setting up the lighting. Then we will finish the new Hollinger Hollow sign. I've been calling that the New Old Gate but the truth is that we won't have time to build the "gate" part of the gate so when we're done it will simply look like a sign, which is fine. It will still look good and next year we will complete the gate.

Halloween day we will put out the pneumatic props, run the hoses, put down the hay in the yard and spread the mulch along the walk way and that will finish up the display.

Until then, we still have some things to add/build and I will be sure to keep you up to date.

Later!