The Davis House

Chris' office is done

2011-11-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

We worked on getting Chris' office done right after Halloween. Took a little longer than we expected. She painted the walls gray and the trim black. I made window valances and sanded the printer/Internet cabinet down so she could paint it black and replace the handles with frog ones. She picked out a chandelier for the room that was small enough and I installed it.

Tombstones at the Mansion

2011-11-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

We were asked to make 36 tombstones for the Playboy Mansion for their Charity Halloween Party last Friday and Saturday night. We only had a week to make them and then make 3 crates and have them shipped to Los Angeles CA.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T10:42:00.001-07:00

It is almost Halloween night. We have had a great October season. Had a fantastic Party and the crowds each Fri/Sat/Sun were big this year even in the rain. The effects ran pretty smoothly and we have perfected their setup and take down so it hasn't been too hard each night. Here are some photos of the setup this year from our friend Marci Brandt.

Daylight at the graveyard

2011-10-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

We got the monks and TOT's positioned on Saturday. Everything was ready to go for the effects that night.

Spider webs

2011-10-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

We added webs Saturday afternoon when the weather was nice.

Great weekend of full effects

2011-10-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

The weather cooperated all 3 nights we ran the full effects. Everything went pretty smoothly. People seem to like the new Abbey. We also got our fair share of people who have never seen the display before.

First night of full effects

2011-10-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the Abbey lit up our first night of full effects. Was a nice night with lots of visitors.

Setup Day

2011-10-05T09:37:00.001-07:00

We had a LOT of people come and help with setup on Saturday.

The Graveyard is setup once again

2011-10-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

We spent Saturday and Sunday setting up the yard display. We had a ton of help on Saturday and were able to get everything out in the yard and most of the details in place including sound and lights. We spent Sunday between rain showers finishing. We have a few things to do before Friday's official full effects night but it is looking pretty good.

The Abbey is up!

2011-09-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

We spent all day Sunday in the rain setting up the Abbey. We got the scissor lift at 9am and had a minor problem while we waited for them to go get it. We started on the Abbey about 10am and we finished the last panel about 7pm. We took a few breaks because of rain showers and stopped to eat lunch. Probably could have got it done a bit sooner without the rain. We had more than enough help and the extra hands chipped in to do other things that needed to get done. We even whipped out a little panel and column on the fly to hide a support beam.

It rained all weekend

2011-09-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

We didn't take a single picture all weekend. But it was the weekend of trim trim and more trim. We painted it all black and faux painted it during the week. Our plan was to glue it all on during the weekend and make any more that we needed. We did glue some of it but only to panels we could stack in the garage.

Our plan is to get it all glued on during this week and finish any last minute details on Saturday before we get the scissor lift on Sunday and put it all up.

Productive Weekend

2011-09-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

We got a lot of stuff done but didn't take a lot of pictures. We built the lattice work for the big back windows of the Abbey. Finished hanging all the panels on the lower back side. Built all the trim needed. Made a few new panels for the front to block off the back area. We finished painting our 2nd TOT.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

We worked hard all 3 days to get the Abbey ready. Got the wood structure up and some of the panels on. We painted all the panels. We even made all the trim for all the seams. We painted the Donation box and we finished the new Mud-o-Vision.

Work Weekend

2011-08-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

We spent all weekend working on Abbey panels. On Saturday we finished texturing all the panels and on Sunday we painted them black front and back.

We also tore apart the donation box and rebuilt it to be sturdier and came up with a different concept than the mud guys holding it. We placed it on an evil tree stump.

Mud-o-Vision upgrade

2011-08-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

We are going to put a LCD panel into our old Mud-o-Vision prop so we can display color and to upgrade the electronics. We pulled the old BW TV out of his head and began the process of building a new housing for the LCD panel.

This is Mud-o-Vision with his head blown apart.

New Idea

2011-08-21T23:54:00.000-07:00

When we make foam panels stone walls we use a little rubber cement and the debris from texturing to cover the plastic washers we use to hold the foam to the frame. We normally have to glue these a couple of times to get it to blend in.

This time we tried using a circle of foam cut from 1" foam and then cut in half so it was 1/2" and glued it with gorilla glue to the plastic washer. We first sink the washer a little deeper so the foam disc can sink in. Then we texture it and heat gun it and it blends right in and much better looking than the rubber cement and debris technique.

That could have gone better

2011-08-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

We were going to dismantle the structure for the Abbey today. We planned on taking it down piece by piece and labeling it all so it could be painted next weekend. We started at one end and took out a couple of screws and backed off the end. Once we did that the structure started to lean and then it fell in on itself crashing to the ground as we watched in shock. No one was hurt and it only broke a rose bush branch and tore part of a canopy. The pictures say it all. At least it was down but not how we planned it.

Another Tombstone Workshop Success

2011-08-21T23:45:00.000-07:00

We had some great students at our last Tombstone Workshop. We did something a little different and did a stacked foam books and skull with candle project for those that didn't want to do a Tombstone. It made for a busy workshop doing both and a large number of people but we had a great time and I think the students did too.

Afternoon Graduating Class

Morning Graduating Class

This is why we test fit

2011-08-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

Abbey Work Weekend progress

2011-08-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

We worked on the Abbey panels all weekend. Got them all drawn and a lot of them routered and quite a few textured and ready for paint.

New Foam texturing technique

2011-08-16T08:52:00.000-07:00

For some of the larger stones of the abbey where we wanted them to be smoother but be pitted. We found the perfect tool.

Busy work weekend

2011-08-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

We spent the whole weekend working on the Abbey. We drew bricks on the panels. Started routing out the grout lines on the panels and began building the structure to hold the panels. We even poured some skulls and accents for tombstones.

The Cathedral moves to San Jose

2011-08-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

We sold our Cathedral we built in 2006 to make room for the new Abbey we are working on right now.

concert in the yard

2011-07-30T19:53:00.001-07:00

our friends karen & keith's wedding.

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Cool Picture

2011-07-24T23:55:00.000-07:00

Chris asked me to take a photo of a collection of handmade items from people she knows. She made a little cabinet from a thrift store purchase to put some small pumpkins and set it next to a ceramic ghost jack and a larger pumpkin The light was just right at the end of a warm day and it came out really cool.

The skulls have eyes

2011-07-24T23:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of kids put some colored rocks in the eyes of our skulls under the tree. It is so cool how our yard is a playground for creativity.

Yard cleaned and ready for the Wedding

2011-07-24T23:47:00.000-07:00

Our friends all showed up today to help get the outdoors ready for the wedding next Saturday. We put down 3 yards of bark dust (thanks Keith). We fixed and painted the garden trellis (thanks Karen and friends). We cleaned the shop. We pressure washed the patio and sidewalk (thanks Keith and Elyssa). We clean the patio. We patched the cracks in the sidewalk.

Finished Abbey panels

2011-07-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

After a VERY long day on Saturday we finished building all the panels for the new Abbey. We got it all stacked up in the shop. Now we just need to draw out the brick patterns and start carving the panels.

New screen door feature

2011-07-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

Last year we decided to trace out a large version of the davis graveyard logo into a piece of wood and we carved it out. The idea was to put it on our screen door. We finally got around to painting and I installed it today.

Tombstone Workshop

2011-07-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

We had 2 wonderful workshop sessions on Saturday with a great group of eager and creative students. We made some new friends and caught up with some old ones. It was a perfect day.

We had the trim painted

2011-07-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

The trim and garage doors on the shop and little garage and patio were all looking pretty bad. The paint was peeling and missing in many places. We had Dietz Home Improvement come out and scrape, prep and prime the trim and then paint it. Looks very nice.

Repaired the flower Garden and tree bench

2011-07-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

A friend is having her wedding at our place in the back yard. So we have a to-do list of things to fix and update. The flower garden fence was almost all rotted so we put in to posts and primered and painted new fence sections. We also added a bench in the middle of the tree surround so it fit better.

Ruined Abbey Started

2011-07-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

We spent the entire 4 day weekend working on the Abbey. We bought the materials for the front and right sight on Friday and began building panels Saturday. We continued on Sunday and finished on Monday. On Tuesday we set part of it up and drew out the lower level brickwork. We just need to make the other half's panels and finish drawing all the brickwork. Then we carve and shape the stone and add all the accents. Then paint the whole thing black and then detail paint it. Should be done by September.

Weekend Work

2011-07-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

We started the work on our Halloween projects this holiday weekend.
The Margie statue has a hallow out area around the foam face that doesn't look like it was carved so we filled the area with expanding foam and sanded it out so it look more like a carved statue.

We also poured and sanded a bunch of tombstone accents for our upcoming tombstone classes and to sell online.

Back from Ashland

2011-06-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

We took a few days off from the house and Halloween and drove down to Ashland. Our main reason for going so to see plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We travel with friends that go every Memorial Day weekend and they are members so they buy extra tickets for us at their discount and we pay them. Since they do the ordering we just see whatever they pick out. We always stay at the Oak Hill Bed and Breakfast with hosts Tom & Pat Howard and as usual had a wonderful time.

We drove down on Friday stopping in Roseburg for late lunch and ate at the McMenamins Station Pub & Brewery. After getting settled at the B&B we met our friends and had dinner at Martino's right next to the theater. We saw Measure for Measure that evening. It was a great interpretation of the play set in modern day with a Latin feel to it. It has some great surprises with the music and visuals. We had a night cap back at Martino's and then headed back to our B&B's.

Saturday morning came early and we had another one of Pat's great breakfasts and met a few guests at the table. We headed out with our friends to Weisingers Winery were we tasted some great wines. Afterwards we headed back into downtown Ashland to see our matinée play The Language Archive a funny play about language and relationships. After the play we wandered around town and stopped at a wine tasting room called Enoteca that is part of Eden Valley Orchards. We then went to dinner at  Liquid Assets a great little wine bar and restaurant. After dinner we went to our evening play August: Osage County a comedic tragedy about a very dysfunctional family. The play is 3.5 hours with 2 intermissions. Afterwards we just headed back to our B&B and called it a night.

On Sunday we got up and had another wonderful breakfast and then met our friends and headed to Grizzly Peak Winery a new winery in the area we heard about from Weisingers who showed us a new map of wineries in the area. It was a small operation with several good wines to taste. The wine maker was on hand and we got to have him sign our bottles along with his picture in a Rogue Valley Wines book we bought. We headed back to town for our matinée play  To Kill a Mickingbird the play based on the book and movie. It was a wonderful version and based on everyone who read the book or saw the movie was true to the story. After the play we headed over to Market of Choice to buy cheese, bread, crackers, olives and stuff to munch on for dinner. We headed over to a local friends house and ate a spread and drank some of our wine we bought. The were fostering 2 small kittens so they ended up being the center of attention for the evening. We headed back to town for our last play The Imaginary Invalid a hilarious farce about a hypochondriac and his family and doctors. The play has a 60's musical theme to it. Someone said it was rocky horror meets Laugh In which does describe it well after you've seen it. A great play to end on. I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. We went back to Martino's for drinks and stayed with what looked like most of the acting company till late at night when we finally headed back to our B&B.

On Monday we had another great breakfast and our friends all headed home but we booked an extra night so we stayed in town. We walked through the shops of Ashland for a while buying a few gifts for friends. We then headed out to Del Rio Vineyards and Winery who's wine we enjoy. The tasting room experience wasn't the greatest so we bought our few bottles and headed back. We stopped at the Rogue Creamery in Central Point and also tasted some wine at the  Madrone Mountain Tasting room and tasted Daisy Creek wine which was very nice. We then headed south and stopped at the Eden Valley Orchards tasting room and had some great wine there too. We visited some friends for a while afterwards and then headed back to Ashland for a much awaited Indian food dinner at Taj Indian Cuisine. We just headed back to our B&B afterwards and played cribbage until we called it a night (chris won by the way).

On Tuesday we had the place to ourselves and had breakfast a little later. I loved the breakfast panini that Pat made. But all the other breakfasts like french toast, spinich egg rollup with grits, and quiche were all great. We packed up and headed for home. We took a detour through Umpqua Valley at Roseburg and stopped at Pyrenees Vineyard and tasted some great wine. We then went to Abacela and saw their new wine tasting center which is amazing. Their Temranillo is fantastic also. Our last stop was at Spangler Vinyards  which had a Akita named Ginger that greeted us. We met the wine maker Pat and his wife Loree and had a great visit and enjoyed the wine. We ended our tour back at McMenamins in Roseburg were we ate an early dinner before we hit the road and drove all the way home.

It was a great long weekend spent with friends, wine, and theater. What a relaxing Memorial day weekend.

HAuNTCON 2011 costume ball

2011-05-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

The Davis Graveyard at the costume ball

HAuNTcon 2011 workshops

2011-05-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

Our Tombstone Make-N-Take

The Stacked Books and Skull Make-N-Take

Foam Texturing Seminar

Build a graveyard All day Monday Workshop

HAuNTcon 2011

2011-05-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

We just got back from Louisville, KY where The Haunted Attraction National Convention was held this year. We flew in Wednesday night to the Crowne Plaza Hotel right next to the airport. We met a few of our vendor friends in the hallways but called it a night pretty early. Thursday we spent all day shopping for all the make-n-take supplies for everyone and our own supplies for our Monday Workshop. We didn't make it out to the haunt tour that night because we were still setting up the make-n-take room till late. We spent the evening in the bar and in Leonard's suite and then called it a night. Friday Morning I got up extra early so we could shop for a missing part for the first make-n-take at 9am. I was unsuccessful at getting enough of the parts but I did get some. We spent the entire day assisting the make-n-takes and got to browse the show floor a little between sessions. We spent the evening getting ready for our make-n-takes on Saturday so didn't go out on the Haunt tours plus we were told they were a long drive away. On Saturday we spent the whole day in the Make-n-take room running our 2 part Tombstone and Books with Skull make-n-takes. We ran into an issue with the Hotel who said we can't cut foam or sand it in the room. They were ok with carving with a knife and shaping with a rasp and painting though. Fortunately they didn't approach us until after our 2nd session and all we had left was mostly painting. We then had to head up to the seminar rooms and do our foam texturing presentation. But before we did we spent a few minutes with some close friend who had a brief memorial ceremony for a dear friend who unexpectantly passed away last October. Our seminar went well but was lightly attended as it was at the end of the day and people were heading off to eat dinner and get ready for the costume ball. Afterwards we ate dinner in the bar with our favorite Kentucky waitresses and then headed to our rooms to get dresses for the costume ball. The ball was a lot of fun as usual and the costumes were outstanding. At midnight we surprised one of our crew with a birthday song since Sunday was her birthday. The Dance lasted till 1am and then we went to Leonard's room for a while. We were told that a TV morning crew was stopping by at 6am and asked if we could make it down so after a few hours of sleep. We got up and waited until 7am when we found out the crew canceled and covered the thunderstorms that morning instead. We ate at the breakfast buffet that was just laid out and then went back to bed till noon and then came back down to help with the Make-n-takes at 1pm. Luckily a few of our crew handled helping the morning sessions. We spent some time at the show floor and I bought a couple of things to try out this year. We managed the rest of the make-n-takes and then went on the haunt tour that night. It was a haunted house in an old 1960's movie theater. It was interesting and a little different but didn't blow us away. We stayed up late that night in Leonard's suite again but had a 8am workshop on Monday to get started. On Monday our workshop got moved to upstairs so we had to move all our supplies and materials upstairs. We only had 4 students in our workshop so we scaled the pieces we were going to build down a bit. We finally finished at 5pm with a 1hr lunch break in between. The paint was very wet and the coffin we made wasn't glued together or finished painted but everyone was done. One student from Oklahoma who drove took some of the tombstones but all the rest of the monuments we gave to a local haunter who said she'd take them. We cleaned up the room that night and headed back to our rooms to get cleaned up and head to dinner in the bar for the last night. We shipped back our tools and a box to a vendor. We spent the evening in Leonard's suite with a few stragglers who we got to talk with for quite a while. We slept in for the first time on Tuesday and then went to lunch with Leonard and Jeanne and her brother at a Makers Mark Resturant in downtown Louisville our first venture out into the town all weekend. We got back and headed to the airport and then home. It is nice to be back. The trip was fun but exhausting and not quite like all the others we have done because of our heavy involvement. Next year we go back to just attending.

What have we be up too?

2011-03-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

We've been hiding from view for the past 2 months. We haven't been idle though. We are involved in the upcoming HAuNTcon in Louisville, KY April 27-May 2nd at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. We are also involved in the West Coast Haunters Convention WCHC in Salem May 13-15. We have also volunteered to take over the Home Haunters DVD collection production so we have been collecting videos all winter and then putting together a set of DVD's for sale to all haunters which will get judged and awards given away in the Haunters Video Awards that we have run for the past few years.

We have 7 weeks to get ready for all the stuff we are doing at both events and get the DVD's mastered, duplicated, shipped, voted and awards given.

So we have been busy.

Wedding Reception

2010-12-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

Jeff's sister Jeannie and her long time guy Larry finally got married down at the courthouse and we held a reception for them at our place afterwards.

Congratulations Jeannie and Larry we wish you all the best.

Scotland 2010

2010-12-01T16:39:00.000-08:00

So where have we been for most of November. Well, after we quickly put the Halloween display away we packed for a 3 week trip to the UK.

We flew over on Tuesday the 9th and stayed in Edinburgh in a 2 bedroom flat with some friends for 3 nights. Then we took a train to West Kilbride where we rented Law Castle with 5 other couples and a single person for a week. We toured all over Scotland and did day trips to Glasgow and into West Kilbride which is on the west coast of Scotland. The following week we traveled down to Penzance in the Southern tip of Cornwall England and stayed in a 2nd floor apartment overlooking the warf for a week. We explored most of Cornwall from Land's End to Tintagel to Lizard to St. Austel. We spent the next 4 nights in a small apartment on the river in Bath where we explored the city and took a tour out to the ancient sites and the cotswolds. On our last day we took a train into Cardiff Bay and saw the Dr. Who exhibit and where Torchwood and Dr. Who scenes are filmed.

Hamish the famous highland cow- Callender

Law Castle - West Kilbride

Urquhart Castle - Loch Ness

Snow at Stonehenge

Dr. Who Exibit - Cardiff Wales

Warf Apartments - Penzance

Dr. Who Exibit - Land's End

One of many Coves - Cornwall

Cotswold Village

Cardiff Bay Wales

Spiderfest 2010

2010-11-04T13:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some final pictures of Chris' spider scene.

Our new prop TOT

2010-11-04T12:50:00.000-07:00

We created a new prop this year we call TOT (trick-or-treater). He hung around behind one of the mud men all month and then up by the gate on Halloween night. We moved him out front for some photos before we took it all down.

Halloween a big success again

2010-11-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

This is one of the first performances of the dancers and the early crowd gathered for Halloween day.

Spider Tree

2010-11-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Chris asked her blog friends to send her spiders she could hang in the tree and create a little miss muffet scene she could photograph Halloween day. Here are some photos of her setting up. We also took some pictures of our graveyard dancers with the spiders.

Moonlight photos

2010-10-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

Took some photos in the moonlight since it was a full moon tonight. I'm not all that good with night photography but I try.

Morning Shadows

2010-10-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

I've been watching this shadow for the past few mornings so this morning I went out and took this picture.
You can see it comes from the bucky we have that holds signs for our events. He was left out after the open house. Cool shadow though.

First full weekend with full effects

2010-10-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

All three nights were very nice. Friday night worked out well with the rain starting as we shut down. Saturday and Sunday were wet days but cleared up in the evening for people to come out and view the display. We took some shots late Sunday night to show it all up and running.

It all starts this weekend

2010-10-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight is our first official effects night. That is, unless it rains :( Cross fingers everyone!!

We are hoping to have most of the effects ruuning, but as you know, things happen. Please be patient.

Be sure to stop by and check it out and if you are looking for other cool seasonal things to do be sure to check out the area haunted houses and the Halloween Bazaar that is happening at Oaks Park this weekend. Some of the crew plans to stop by to do some shopping.

See you there!

The Graveyard is setup

2010-10-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

It was a busy September and we didn't get a chance to do any posts. The first 2 weeks we worked on the Extreme Makeover Home Edition of Nightmare Factory in Salem so nothing went on around here.
We setup the scaffolding on September 19th and then the following weekend installed the display. We worked the following weekend to get all the details in place.

Our Last Tombstone class of the year

2010-08-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

We had fewer students with the afternoon session on having 4 tombstones but both sessions had some creative people with some great tombstones.

Detail Painting

2010-08-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

On Sunday.

We painted our new face projection prop. We finished the crypt top aging. We repainted and detailed the Beloved prop. We painted our new ghost kid prop white.

We also got our moving coffin lid fixed so it should work the entire season this time.

Small Skeletons

2010-08-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

Chris redid the smaller skeleton with cheese cloth which looks much better.

She also painted the larger skeleton black this weekend.

Chris playing with dolls

2010-08-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Chris is working on some Davis Graveyard Art pieces for decorating for the party and to possibly sell on an Etsy Store. She started with a couple of different sized skeletons that we made stand on a base. Then she used monster mud and sheets to create a cover for them. Next she'll paint them and finish detail them.

Prop Update

2010-08-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

We started detail painting the female projection statue.

We finished what we call "sleeping beauty" a crypt lid. Put it in the yard to see how it will look.

New Prop

2010-08-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

We started with a child's body form from Ghost Ride Productions. Put a wig head on it and a pair of children's shoes.

We then build a base for it and draped it in sheets soaked on Monster Mud.

The idea is a kid in a simple ghost costume. We'll add a teddy bear and a plastic pumpkin for candy and put it in the middle of the driveway like a scared kid caught in the display. The idea is to add more kids in the future with other classic costumes.

Hot weekend of prop making and teaching

2010-08-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

We held our Molding and Casting class this past weekend. We had 6 students who made a mold of a small skull and then cast it in expanding foam. The class started at 9am on both days. it went until 4pm on Saturday and 2pm on Sunday. There were a lot of 40 min to 1hr breaks.

Work progressed on our new video head prop of a female statue half carved from stone. We had a

couple of false starts but the final version everyone is happy with. We got her painted black.

We have almost finished our crypt lid we are

working on.

New props this year

2010-08-09T09:42:00.001-07:00

We worked on a couple of new props for the year.

We are building a ground crypt that will have a shrouded person on top

of the lid when we are done

The other prop is a small female statue that will have a projected face that will sing a creepy song and say some lines. It is going to look like it is partially carved from stone when it is done.

Last weekends work

2010-08-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

Finished the scroll work on the luminary for inside the Abbey for the party. Also finished the last of the resin votives.

Mudded the last 2 mud men and painted one of them.

The larger one is going to hold a silver tray and be outside of Wine:30 the wine bar downtown in October.

Started work on the female statue that we are going to project onto that will replace our talking head.

The luminary project from hell

2010-07-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

We've almost finsished casting all 48 of the resin votive holders with holes in the bottom for the wires

We finished cutting out the fancy scroll work that will mount in the underside of the frame to make it look like decrotive iron work.

The base has been cleaned up and painted.

There has been a LOT of work on this single prop that is only used inside our shop for our party.

But Chris REALLY likes it and wants it to look perfect so we do what she wants.

Cement Skulls

2010-07-27T10:34:00.001-07:00

We finished creating new Skull molds so we poured some cement ones. They are great for candles or for setting out in your yard year round.

Halloween prep has started

2010-07-27T10:22:00.001-07:00

We are in full swing getting our to-do list done for this halloween. We are working on a few new projects and fixing and improving quite a few existing ones.

We patched together the broken eternal flame monument.

We made the bases removable on the mourner and Joan of Arc. No more spiders in the eyes.

We rebuilt the donation box from all the kids that climbed on it and crushed the heads.

Built 3 new mud men and mudded one of them.

The office is DONE!

2010-06-26T21:47:00.001-07:00

We started painting and finishing the wiring and got the lights in.

Painted the walls light gray

Painted one wall blue..Jeff's favorite color

Paints done

Installed carpet and trim which is painted dark gray.

Outlet plates are all done.

Time to move in!

Getting Closer

2010-06-19T14:33:00.001-07:00

The drwall is up and taped and mudded.

The walls are primered and textured.

All we have left is another coat of primer over the texture and then paint, trim, final wiring including the lights and then carpet.

Jeff will be moving in pretty soon!

Office Update

2010-06-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we had the office framed and the window and pocket door put in. We spent the last couple of weeks wiring for power, data, and phone. We insulated all the walls (for sound proofing mostly) and added a vapor barrier on the outside walls.

The drywall is getting put up in the next few days and then we paint and install carpeting and trim.

Second office finally started

2010-05-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

After months of talking about it we finally began work on the 2nd office for Jeff. This will be his own office just for his stuff and the original office will be exclusively Chris'.

This is our current office with both of us in it.

The basement office was originally what we used as a craft and hobby area but was mostly ignored. We tore out the storage cabinet, ceiling tiles, light fixture and drywall on the walls including the door. Our plan is to install a new vinyl double pane window and a 32" pocket door. We will frame the concrete walls and finish it

with drywall and then put down new

vinyl tile and paint it all. We'll add

outlets and lighting and move the desk pieces from the office along with all of Jeff's stuff into the basement office where

Jeff will become a cellar dweller.

After tearing it out all day we took several trips to the dump. After doing a couple other things we were done for the weekend. Next up....get the vinyl tile removed.

Our long term goal is to add a 1/2 bathroom with a toilet and sink. And finish the area outside the office as a living space for wine drinking and music. We need to frame a dividing wall between the area and laundry and storage area.

Molding and Casting

2010-03-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

We are starting work on a bunch of molding and casting this year. We are holding a workshop in August for 15 lucky people who will create a mold of a skull and cast it in rigid foam.

I put 1 coat of rubber on the skull so far. I'm waiting for the pigment to come in so I can color each layer.

But first I have a couple of other projects I wanted to to do. The first was a couple of new accents molds for tombstone workshops this summer. Chris brought home a couple of cherubs she wanted me to make molds of so I went to TAP plastics and bought some rubber and made the molds. I broke both of the originals getting them out of the mold but the foam casts came out great. I also used a good portion of the rubber for another project which left me a bit short so I created voids in the rubber with some clay on the square one.

The other project is 48 resin votive candle holders for Chris' luminary. We need to have holes in the bottom for the LED's and wires and drilling glass just isn't smart. So I suggested we create a mold of the original glass holder and then cast them in clear resin tinted red. I'm on my third one and they are turning out pretty good. The resin takes longer to set than I would like (about 36hrs) but that might have something to do with the shop feeling like a walk in cooler. The one on the paper plate is the copy and the one on the table is the original.

Holiday Decorations are up

2009-12-09T08:52:00.001-08:00

We setup Calvin and Hobbes Thanksgiving weekend and the reaper and scrooge tombstone last weekend.

Ghost effects in the display

2009-11-06T12:01:00.000-08:00

It is often hard to photograph the ghost effects in the display for two reasons. One, it has to be dark to see the effects well but that makes taking pictures hard without a flash. And two if you use no flash the effect is blured when using long exposures.

So we solved the issue the night after halloween when we ran the effects one last time. We paused the video effects so we could photograph them. I think they came out nice.

New Effect this year

2009-11-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

We added an new ghost effect of children walking in the graveyard. It turned out to be the simplest effect to do but had the biggest impact on all our visitors.

What we did was string a cable from the back of the house to the shop at about 9 feet high. We took 3 10x10 cotton black muslin photography backdrops and sewed them together and strung them along the cable like a curtain. We then filmed our friends kids in white doing stuff along the curtain. Then created a ghost video using the same techniques we always use. Then stuck a projector behind a tombstone at the same place we filmed from and projected it onto the curtain. We created six 5 foot long tube sandbags to hold the curtain down in the wind. We would bring the curtain out at night and setup the projector and just let it run. These photos were taken one night when we paused the projector.

26th Anniversary

2009-11-03T08:35:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we celebrated our 26th Wedding Anniversary by going out to our favorite restaurant Plainfields. The best indian food resturant in the area with Chef Craig Plainfield. We brought our bottle of 1999 Opus 1 for our special night and half way through the evening Craig offered to cut us a deal on another bottle he had in his huge cellar. We had a great time as always and enjoyed some great wine and the best indian food as always.

Halloween a big success

2009-11-01T14:51:00.000-08:00

We had the largest turnout ever for Halloween. The weather was great and it was a Saturday night. The Graveyard Dancers performed all night. We saw some of the biggest crowds we have ever seen.

A wedding in the graveyard

2009-11-01T14:43:00.001-08:00

We had a young couple get married in the graveyard on Halloween. They contacted us a month ago and asked if it would be alright and of course we said yes. Just a short little ceremony with a few guest at 11am. They were done by 1pm in plenty of time for us to get ready for halloween.

Special Awards

2009-10-29T11:03:00.001-07:00

We gave out a few special awards at the party this year.

The sketch artist award (Etch-a-Sketch 60's packaging).

Best Assistant award. (dirt devil vacum)

Messiest Creator Ward (just a bunch of paint and mess on plywood)

The Damn that was close award for standing right next to Andy when he fell.

Party Dedication

2009-10-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

At the party we dedicated the struture in front of the shop the Westerman Abby in honor of Andy and his sacrafice of his foot to the display.

The Party

2009-10-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

The annual party was a big hit. We think everyone had a good time.

Sexiest Costume.

Scariest Costume (Jesus)

Most Elaborate Costume. (hand made holster and replica gun)

Peoples Choice Award.

Best Couple.

Best Costume (Jack)

artMOB makes tombstones

2009-10-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Milwaukie Art Commitee came over on Sunday and carved 12 tombstones and painted them black. We cut them out, shapped them, and applied the epitaphs Saturday morning. Made for a busy weekend. On top of the full crowds that showed up for the display.

Big Friday night turnout

2009-10-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of people show up last night. The weather was nice. No wind and a bit warm. The fog looked good. Everything was running pretty well with only a few minor hiccups. We kept things running after 11pm so we could take some pictures and video.

Haunt Tour 2009

2009-10-16T12:43:00.001-07:00

We went on a mini haunt tour of Portland last night with our friends from Union that own the Darklore Manor in eastern Oregon.

Every year we turn the offer down from haunt owners to visit their haunts because we are so busy. But we figured if they could drive 8 hours (4 each way) to visit haunts, we really had no excuse.

We saw, in this order:

Fright Town - First time we had seen this and well worth the trip!! I know Dave by name only in the haunt circles and friends of friends, really want to meet him sometime to tell him how great his stuff is.

Scream at the Beach - Carnival and everything, wow! PDX was out there filming...be sure to watch for them on TV!!

13th Door - thanks Raymond for the personal tour and being an overall great guy!! Favorite of the night......and I am not just saying that cause he let us in for free :D

They were all great haunts! We had a great time.

Still have not seen the haunted Maze at Sauvie Island (and we have made props for Craig, another really nice guy. . . . so we really should go out there), but since Craig's haunt only runs on weekends....I don't know if we can make it happen :(

These are great haunts and some generous and gracious haunters that deserve our support. If you are in the area, be sure to check out PortlandHaunts.com for more details!

2009 Davis Graveyard Open House

2009-10-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Everyone had a great time at the open house. The weather was great (which in the NW means that it did not rain - cold, but no rain) and we made over $600 for the Milwaukie High School Dance Team.

It is a great community event and we estimate that we had over 800 people attend throughout the day! Thanks to all the volunteers who helped throughout the day answering questions and giving tours. And special thanks to the Portland Coffin Cruisers for bringing by your rides!! You guys rock!!

Here are pictures of the event. Thanks to everyone who came and helped support the dance team. If you were not able to make it and still want to donate to the dance team (who danced their as...behinds off! :) Contact hosts@davisgraveyard.com.

Photos by the cute and funny Marci B.

A word from our local fan club

2009-10-14T11:47:00.001-07:00

Here is a link to our friend Brian Dorr's blog, he is part of the neighborhood association with us and a good friend. Here is his take on the Davis Graveyard open house. He makes us sound so cool!!!

I am glad he got his pictures up...we are still working on ours. Open house wrap up is on the way!

Great photos and words Brian, thanks! http://www.bjdorr.com/200910112152

Photo courtesy of Brian Dorr

Thanks for the makeup

2009-10-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

A big thanks goes out to Matt Huntley, who, for the third year in a row has volunteered his time to come do the makeup for the dancers on the day of the open house.

Great guy, the girls enjoy the attention and he is very generous with his time and is happy to show anyone who is interested how to do it.

Thanks again Matt, the dancers looked great!

Davis Graveyard Dancers - 2009

2009-10-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry to miss a day on the countdown...but yesterday was our Open House and we were busy!!

Pictures to follow, but here is a video of the new dance routine from the Milwaukie High School Pony Prancers. This year they got one of their coaches to dance the Micheal Jackson part. It was a show stopper!! You cannot hear it this edit....but the applause at the end was deafening :D

We had great weather and a great turn out. Thanks again to the Milwaukie Dance Team. They will be back Halloween night!

Last night was the first night

2009-10-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

the yard was up and running....almost everything worked and we got hundreds of visitors!!

BTW - that night vision security camera is the coolest thing.....we can see what you are doing at the front gate, so mind your manners when you visit....I mean don't mess with the props!

Tomorrow is the open house. We have a lot to do!!

Another great Hauntcast

2009-10-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

If you have not heard it already, go right now and check out the latest Hauntcast. Lots of stuff happening in the Halloween world, you would not want to miss any of it.

I mean who does not want to hear from the guy that made "toliet monster!" :D

Hauntcast 11: K'Octoberfest

Great show as usual guys, oh and gal! Keep up the great work.

Okay, say it with me

2009-10-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

Wow! Marci takes amazing photos.

Here are photos of the Angel/Skeleton (nuangel) prop. She is just beautiful.

photo courtesy of Marci Brandt

Website update

2009-10-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

We updated the Davis Graveyard site with information on where to park for the open house this weekend and the schedule of events.

We also added some more bios of our fabulous crew. Welcome Daniel and Elyssa (they have been here for years...we are just slow at getting the website updated) - who have been at the graveyard almost as much as we have...I am thinking we need to set they up a guest room! :)

Anyway, thanks guys, your work on the yard this year is amazing....I mean you have all seen that spider right?

We are featured in the Milwaukie Newsletter

2009-10-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

We were also featured in our local Milwaukie newsletter called "The Pilot" - and mention in our local neighborhood association section!

Yeah! We are hoping for a big turn out for the dance team this Sunday!

We are featured in the Oregonian

2009-10-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

Wow, we were in the main section of the paper, four pages in, top of the page above the fold.

I used to work in a newspaper, trust me that is a prime spot!!! :)

We are trying to get as much press as we can for the dancers this Sunday so we can raise lots of $$ for them. They do a great job each year, they so deserve it!!!

The yard is mostly working

2009-10-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

We had a few extra problems last night - first being the sound system that we got working by mid afternoon, did not work when we started it at dusk....no sound, nothing! Jeff got it working, but it still bothers us that it is having problems.

We heard from the crew that the replacement of the music soundtrack with just whispering is very creepy...:)

The "help me" directly ripped from the original fly is off working nicely....along with an occasional skittering sound, makes your skin crawl :)

Fog machine is giving us grief, we have two controllers and neither of them seems to be working.

The bush rattling effect is cool, in the daylight....at night you really cannot see anything and we are now thinking that it really needs to sync up with the glowing eyes in the bushes. I believe we will be ordering more EFX-TK controllers this Hauntcon :)

We will be working on replacing the way that some of the projectors and controllers are plugged in to be safer and easier to set up.

More testing the next few nights. Getting ready for our opening night, Friday, October 9th.

Thanks again to all our fabulous helpers!!!

Techincal weekend

2009-10-04T00:05:00.000-07:00

We have been testing the technical side of the haunt for the last two nights. Good thing too. We found some problems that we forgot about from Halloween night last year :)

We have tested:

The opening coffin

The spider spinning the cocoon

The church ghost

The crypt ghosts (she had some issues - but she is all better now :)

The children ghost

The preacher coming out of the door ghost

As of today we are down a projector and an amp. We are using our back ups...but now we need new backups!!! Back to Ebay we go! :D

Tomorrow it is the talking head, spider and gravedigger.....and the big headache....the sound system.

Husband is sitting at his computer right now installing the operating system for the new computer to control the sound....cause the one we were going to use did not work when we plugged it in this afternoon. :)

That is why we have a test weekend :)

Happy Halloween

2009-10-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

From the Davis Graveyard.

The pictures are starting to come in . . . we both love this one.

The Angel/Skeleton

2009-10-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

This is one of the new props for 2009. We recycled the old angel into another prop and built the new angel inspired by the Angel and Demons movie poster.

She is a collaborative effort, starting with our Mike our new helper that did the wings for her. She is up in the yard now and we are working on getting her lighted correctly.

It has been a challenge to get lighting on all the details (including the base), we have attached lights on the ground and on the back of a few tombstones in front of her.

Watch for evening pictures of her in the coming weeks.

Happy Halloween from the Davis Graveyard

2009-10-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

We are working feverishly to get the yard ready. Most of it is up and we have been working on lighting and effects each evening.

We will be doing a test run this weekend and the full display will be running "cross-fingers" on Friday, October 9th.

Stop by and see our new props and effects.

The display is getting closer

2009-09-28T13:19:00.001-07:00

We worked on a lot of the details on Sunday but kept getting interupted by people stoppy by and wanting to talk. Its hard to ignor everyone you haven't talked to in a while so it slowed us down. We also on had a little bit of help. Nick got all the lights wired and we were able to turn them on at night.

First day of setup went well

2009-09-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

We got everything unloaded from the shop and out in the yard. We got the cathedral setup and the masoleum and hearse. We got all the tombstones up in the yard (maybe not all where they should be). Sunday we finish with as much details as we can.

Thanks to everyone that came and helped. We had an awsome crew this year.

The new spider looks good in his home for the year.

Last weekend before setup

2009-09-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

We got the scafolding up on Saturday dispite the heavy rain in the morning. We got most of it up with Preston, Andy and myself. Nick showed up a little later and we finished it by the end of the day.

We got the sign up in the yard. A little late this year. We normally set it up on Labor day weekend.

The spider is coming along and should be ready by setup.

Tony created some new skulls for the stantions and we painted the stantions and the skulls and got them all ready this weekend. Also cleaned and organzied the shop for setup. We are just about ready.

Another work weekend

2009-09-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

We worked on projects both Saturday and Sunday. We finished the Angel monument finally. We also built a stand for Chris' luminary and a box for the new projector for the new effect. We painted and detail or skeleton cages and cast some new skulls for the stantions we put out front. I even cast a few concrete skulls for Chris. We spent quite a bit of time on the new Spider and it is getting close to being done. Next weekend is scafolding setup and final finsh of all projects. Then it's SETUP!

New Video Effect

2009-09-08T14:26:00.001-07:00

We have been working on a new ghost effect in the yard this year. We strung a cable across the back of the yard and hung 3 ten foot black backdrops up. We sewed the seams of them together and made some sandbags to hold the bottoms down from blowing around.

We filmed our friend kids dressed in white walking along the backdrop. Then we can project their ghost images on the backdrop from a projector in the yard behind a tombstone. Looks pretty good.

Busy Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

Despite the heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday we got a LOT done over the last big weekend before Halloween. Our good friend Dan dropped off a big tent we used to keep things dry and stay out of the rain between downpours.

We built 2 additional mud men for 2 people who couldn't make the workshop. With Chris and Ellysa helping it only took a couple of hours. But the weather was so damp and cold that we waited to paint them until Monday afternoon. One of our students stuck around all day Saturday and helped us paint stuff. She was great help! We finished painting them on Monday afternoon when it was dry.

We painted a lot of the props and finished them. Chris didn't like how the Angel monument looked with the short dress so we decided to add a leg coming out like she is kneeling on one knee. It took quite a bit for me to cut into that nice prop and mess it all up. But it will look good when it is done. We also finished the sword for her too.

Got a lot of technical projects done too. An animated skull, some devices to move the bushes, new UV painted footsteps and a few other projects off our list. Things are looking pretty good. We even had time to drag out all the tombstones and touch them up before setup this year!