New Cemetery Columns And Fence

Got our newly made cemetery columns and plastic chain fence in place yesterday afternoon. The flame sconces will be installed for Halloween as will the headstones and giant winged skeleton demon and red Fire & Ice spot lights. Since this is the first time this setup is being used, we wanted to give it a few days to settle in (using shimmed 16" concrete patio pavers to accommodate for the slope of the yard). The inner space of the cemetery is roughly 80 square feet.

Cemetery Fence Columns Completed

The faux flame light sconces and D-ring fence chain connectors have been installed on the cemetery columns.

Prop Progress Update

New cemetery post columns and 2 new aediculas antiqued to match our 2023 aedicula prop. Still have to add the LED flame light sconces and D ring brackets for fence chain to the columns and the center plaque mounting screws to the new aediculas. The outdoor light stringers for the house will go up in ~ 2 weeks followed by our pre-haunt inflatable flame light jack-o-lantern decoration at the end of September.

Haunt Prop Progress Report

Our new carpentry prop additions for our annual Halloween yard haunt are painted and the permanent decorative plaques for the aediculas are installed. Next phase is applying watered down flat black exterior paint antiquing wash on all of these which will bring out the textured paint details and make all these items looked aged.

Cemetery Column Prop Test

With two of the four cemetery columns built, we wanted to do a proof of concept test regarding the slope of our front yard. While plastic shims work under the columns to make them level, the columns are a bit wobbly on the shims (the bottoms of the columns are open). We will use four 16" x 16" cement patio pavers and will shim the patio pavers. The patio pavers should be stable due to their heavy weight and low center of gravity and we'll simply place the columns on top of the pavers. The maple tree is large enough now to make a nice visual focal point for the cemetery graveyard just off the side of our driveway.

2025 Halloween Summer Prop Builds

The summer prop builds for our Halloween 2025 yard haunt have begun. We finished building the first of four new cemetery columns today. When all are completed they will get painted with gray Behr Textured DeckOver paint and then finished with a transparent black antique coat. This year we're moving the cemetery headstones out to the front yard around our October Glory maple tree. When the columns are finished, each outward facing column side will have a faux wrought iron battery powered LED flame sconce mounted on it (eight sconces in total). The hope is to create some visual interest without going crazy with detailed trim pieces on the columns. The columns will be linked together with silver plastic security chains to set the cemetery space. A set of three aediculas will go along the front walkway garage wall to replace the headstones that we usually place there. One aedicula was built a couple years ago, two additional ones still need to be built later this summer.