My Haunted Life

Well, it's officially Halloween.  Welcome to my last post of the season.  

I was late getting to my outside decorations (again) this year, and when I did, I was shocked to find this.

At first, I thought someone had been careless putting them away last year, but upon completely unwrapping them, I found the broken out pieces had not merely been punched out, but had been shredded to little tiny pieces.  I've had these columns for 20 years now and never had an issue.  I wrap them up tightly in heavy plastic sheets.  The sheets weren't damaged and were still sealed, so I don't know what could have got in and done this kind of damage.

So my expected relaxing week off became a race to repair and repaint them.  I started by cutting out the damaged sections.

The entire top of one column had been completely blown out.

Panels that weren't broken had been pushed out.

They no longer sell the pink foam board I originally used to create these, but fortuntely, Home Depot sells packs of 2'x4' Styrfoam.  It was the same thickness as the pink foam board (3/4") so it matched in depth.  I used white caulk to seal the seams.

I rolled on grey latex porch paint (it gives a good base stone color).  And then sprayed Rust-Oleum Stone Creations Gray Stone Spray Paint over that and it gives a good illusion of stone, particularly when it's dark out.

With the columns back in shape, I completed decorations in the last couple days.

I gave my skeleton a ventriloquist dummy this year. That was a garage sale find.

I got a new fog machine this year and it pumps the fog out pretty good.  When it was going full steam (ha!) it filled our cul-de-sac.  A family came driving down in a golf cart last evening and I heard a woman say, "Holy Moly!" Mission accomplished.

We had some decorating help from an orb weaver spider.

And finally, some shots from inside which you may have already seen, but here you go anyway.

Thank you for joining me this season once again and I hope you enjoyed.  Here's to Halloween 2027!