Why Chabby House?

As the 2019 design and build season begins, I have also started working on a backstory video for the haunt. My plan is to have the "movie" ready for a fall release. The original print version of the backstory is available on my old blog - https://chabbyhouse.blogspot.com/ for as long as Blogspot wants to keep it up. Of course, this is merely the story Chabby House is based around. It is fiction. A combination of historical fact and fictional persons and events.

However, you may still be wondering why I decided on the name Chabby House? Or why anyone would go to such lengths to decorate their house so elaborately for Halloween in the first place?

To start with I love Halloween. I really don’t know why but I don’t remember ever not loving it. I love most things about it – witches, bats and spiders, ghosts and goblins. I love the dark, mysterious vibe and magic of this night. In one overused word it is AWESOME!

For me, Halloween is a night to honour and celebrate our ancestors (the dead) which is why I incorporate historical facts and events into my haunt. Halloween also marks a time between fall and winter. In this “in-between” time the veil between the living and the dead is thin thus we have ghosts and goblins. I could go into a whole piece on the history of Halloween, but I think that would be going over the top. I will add though that in my opinion, Halloween should be a fun, scary, but fun experience for all – including children, which is why I try to keep the blood and gore to a minimum.

But why Chabby House?

The name Chabby (pronounced Shabby) is actually a shortened version of our last name and was my husband’s nickname when he was in the army. I went with House because it seemed more fitting. I certainly do not live in a manor. It also honours other horror/ghost stories that have gone on before (ie: Hill House, House of Usher, etc.).

The decorations? The cemetery? The walk through? Well, just in case you didn't catch it earlier, I love Halloween. I started decorating when I was 16, still living under my parents' roof. It started with Paper Mache tombstones and grew to include headless dummies. Things were limited though by storage (only so much room in a PMQ) and my parents’ wishes.

Then I grew up, moved out, got married and we bought our own home. Suddenly I could decorate as much as I wanted. For the first few years I kept to the front yard building a nice cemetery. I received many compliments on Halloween night from the neighbours. Of course, this encouraged me to continue.

Halloween took on new meaning in 2011 after our daughter passed away. I built her a tombstone for our cemetery so she would be included. It is the first tombstone to go up every year. Chabby house became a way to honour her memory. A baby girl gone far too soon. This is also the reason that we have a Wishing Well at the front of our haunt to collect donations for other families that are in crisis. We have been there and know how hard it is to deal with regular tasks when a child is in the hospital for an extended period.

So that is briefly the reason for Chabby House. I hope you can join us in October and visit the haunt in person.

Canadian Haunters Association Awards

So, it is that time of year again. Time to look back at the work we did last year and get a video ready for the Canadian Haunters Association Awards. I tried a couple years ago (as you may remember, 2017 was a bust) so since we got it together this year I decided I would throw my video into the race again. The competition will be stiff. There are a lot of awesome home haunters out there! The actual awards show will probably be sometime in March.

But without further ado here is my video.

Now onto 2019! New ideas! New Props!

Promised Pumpkins

A new Halloween build year has started and once again we have many projects planned. But first, at long last and as I promised on my old blogger site, some pics of my 2017 paper Mache pumpkins.

When I first began to purchase fake pumpkins I picked them up at Michaels. At that time they had different shapes but now they are all pretty much the same. They are also pretty expensive. So, I did some research on YouTube and came across Unhinged Productions. After watching his series for creating paper mache pumpkins, I was sure I could use his techniques and make my own. It is a pretty cheap process and allows me to create different shapes and sizes. It was just what I was looking for.

So, first you build the base - a couple of plastic grocery bags stuffed with newspaper. You tape that into the shape of pumpkin you are looking for then cover the entire thing in a layer of tape. Again, the instructions can be found on the Unhinged Productions YouTube channel.

You then create your mixture of paper mache. I used the one by Unhinged Productions which added wood glue and dry wall to a basic old fashioned paper mache recipe. Using the paper mache paste and newspaper I covered the plastic bags with 3 to 4 layers of paper mache. After a day of drying, I drew an outline of the face and began to sculpt using homemade paper clay. This process took a couple days.

Once this was completely dry I cut out the bottom of the pumpkin and pull out its insides. The tape is supposed to allow the bag to be pulled out more easily but I didn't use enough with the larger pumpkin and the bag ended up sticking to the inside. So his insides tore a bit and I had to fill in with more paper mache after it was cleaned out. I had less of an issue with my smaller pumpkin.

Next I did the detail work. I cut out the face, added more substance to the stems and a bit of "guts" to my large pumpkin's mouth. Then I had to wait for both pumpkins to completely dry. We had a hot summer so it only took a couple days.

Next was the paint. I started with flat outdoor latex black. I covered both pumpkins entirely, inside and out. I let that dry for about a day then I did the white dry brushing.

Finally came the colour. I painted both with pumpkin orange and used a combination of brown and greens for the stems. The last thing I needed to do was attempt to give them more weather protection. Since I use Leak Seal on my tombstones, I decided to go with that but I ran out of time to coat them for 2017. Here they are all sealed and ready for their debut in October 2018.