# Maze of Terror- It begins...



## Haunty (May 31, 2006)

Update- Sept. 22

Today is the big day & first day of the build.
It's typical that we will have to move the farm equipment out of the shed to another location before starting. That takes a while to do & clear the floor space to work in. The first day of the build tends to go a bit slow. But, walls seem to jump in place before we know it. The maze isn't planned out in a 3D foam model or designed with the "triangular grid system" (like at HFW HH). Not knocking the system, it just doesn't work well on an uneven gravel floor. My nephew Jason & I are the main builders, (although we have some help from friends & family). We also have a lot more time to put it together (40-50 hrs) with less crew.

Click on the link for new pics. 

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b203/Haunt_Master/Maze 07/

Keep checking back for weekly progress details.


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## Haunty (May 31, 2006)

Update- 9/29 

Haunt builders: Jason, Stephanie, Alex, Ronald, & Myself 

Weather in Southern MN- 80o w/ 60 mph winds, 30% chance of rain during the day. 

As a recap- last weekend we spent almost 8 hrs building the maze. The que area is half framed & the outside walls on the right, from front to back are up. The first tunnel/cave is installed & some middle areas are framed. That was with the help of 3 builders. 

Today I loaded & unload my last pickup full of scrap wood, 2 full sheets of plywood, & recycled doors (all collected from Spring cleanup days, for free). It was a bit tougher to do in rain the we got on & off today. The high winds didn't help matters also. All the left outside walls from front to back, center back walls, & more center areas were completed. Also, a revolving door & revolving wall were placed, as other workable doors too. We worked from 1:30pm - 9pm, with a short Supper break. 

Photolink to follow....


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## Haunty (May 31, 2006)

Photos from: 
Saturday Sept. 29th 

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b203/Haunt_Master/Maze 07/?start=0


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## Haunty (May 31, 2006)

Update 10/6 

Haunt builders: Jason, Stephanie, Ronald, & Myself 

Weather in S. MN- 86o w/ high winds (60o normal High) 

Working on the maze was more of a challenge today with it being hot as an oven & flys bothing us. We opened both ends of the shed but, it didn't help. The breeze still wouldn't come in. This is taking a toll on all of us, with frequent breaks outside of the shed to cool off. Broke into 2 teams (Jason & Ronald, & Stephanie & Me) today with one team starting to narrow the passages & bracing walls. And the other working on the holding cell que area at the entrance. 

Had stopped at Menards earlier for supplies of pvc, wood, screws, etc. Since I envisioned the cell area, took on that task. We had a discussion on how to tackle it vs what I had planned. Being early in the morning when I picked up supplies without caffine, I was short 4 pieces of wood, ugh! 

Went with a modified version of it. It took longer to work with pvc, since I had to pre-drill all the screw holes. The first section was temporary attached to the wall for ease in construction. It consisted to 2ea () firing strips & 7ea 1/2 in. pvc pipes screwed to the wood in two places per pvc. Went ahead built the second section, & then built the cell gate. Had gotten over-heated & went into the house for something cool to drink. Supper was ready & we took a longer break. Came back & the main tunnel/cave section was already up, yea! Took some pics of the days progress. Then helped add a cave to the front entrance leading to the cell que area. We did a walk through & discussed what was to be done next. Worked from 2pm - 9pm. 

Photolink to follow....


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## Haunty (May 31, 2006)

New pics from Oct. 6th 

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b203/Haunt_Master/Maze 07/ 

Holding que area cell


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## Haunty (May 31, 2006)

Update 10/13 

Haunt builders- Jason, Steph, Stephanie, Tori, Alex, Ronald, & Myself 

Weather in Southern MN- 60o - 65o, 50% chance of rain 

Today I brought down another 18 1/2 in. pvc (at a $1.09 each plus tax), 2 furring strips, & 2 cans of hammered silver grey spray paint (at $5 a can). That's another $50 for the holding cell, a total of $100 in supplies. Ronald gave me $10 cash to get $10 worth of bars for the cell. Since the bars were spaced very far a part. I finished assemblying the cell bars & hauled them out to be painted. The girls spray painted the holding cell bars on both sides. I let them dry for a bit before installing them. Also installed blocks to the joining sections of the revolving door/wall to make it more sturdy. 

Ronald worked on two project areas- butcher/ torture shop, & the mirror room. 
Jason worked on making the passages smaller & bracing them. 
We ran long heavy duty extension cords over head to a few key areas that need power for lighting or effects. Took a quick supper break, then back to work. 

Was time to place the tarps over the maze. We've got 3 20x30 green/brown tarps & 1 blue tarp. The maze is longer & wider this year & we weren't sure it we had enough to cover it entirely. Unfolding the tarps & carefully spreading them out over head is quite a task & time consuming. It's not always easy to tell if we have it placed right according to the width & length of the maze vs the tarp. Some how luck was with us, & the 4 tarps covered almost all the areas but, the holding cell. But that's ok, we wanted the height of the bars to be impressive. 
Some lighting was installed tonight in two areas, holding cell & tunnel/cave. Put up a string of flicker flame candles along the top edge of the cell. I had bought 2 sets of Phillips Orange led lights. I experimented with one set & plugged it into a flasher coil plug. Nothing happened to my surprise. Then we tried plugging them into a outlet box w/ a dimmer wired to it. When the lights were dimmed down, they began to pulse or flicker. We decided to use them for the top of the long tunnel/cave for lighting (but dimmed down). Pictures were taken through out the day of our progress & we wrapped things up. Had worked from 2pm - 10pm. There is much more things to do before the party, lighting, decorating, sound, etc. 

P.S. Special thanks to my Father & Step Mother for the donation of: extra light bulbs & Halloween props (hanging bat, 2 rubber snakes, & 2 flying prop bats). 

Photolink to follow...


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## Haunty (May 31, 2006)

pics from Sat. Oct. 13th uploaded 

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b203/Haunt_Master/Maze 07/


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## Haunty (May 31, 2006)

Update 10/16 

Haunt builders- Jason, Stephanie, & Myself 
Weather in S. MN- 50o & rainy 

We had planned to work on the maze for just a few hours tonight. My work ran very late & I didn't get out of there till 5:30pm. Had to stop to gas up the truck & pickup something to eat on the way. Didn't get out there til after 7pm, eek! Jason & Steph. had been working on stuff since 6pm. Plan was to install more lighting throughout the maze. We added light weight chains to a long hallway that was guarded by a strobe light (set off by a motion detector). The length & placement was figured out & the chains were installed overhead. There really isn't any way you can avoid them, except to crawl under them. A heavy set of chains were attached to a wall nearby for looks. We camouflaged a walk way thru a tunnel/cave & disguised to blend in to it's surroundings. Patrons will find this year's maze very challenging! 

Photolink to follow...


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