Why do I do it? Well, simply because Halloween is just an awesome holiday. As a kid growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania I can remember how much fun it was in our neighborhood as the air grew colder and the leaves changed color. My friends and I would build small haunted houses in our basements, prowl around the neighborhood at night trying to scare people, and watch horror movies that we probably shouldn't have been watching at such an early age (to this day I still have nightmares from watching The Exorcist). Anyway, there was a guy down the street who would dress up like Frankenstein every Halloween to scare the trick or treaters. His house was always a spectacle, ghoulishly decorated and flashing with strobe lights from inside the front door. Many kids wouldn't even set foot on his property because they were scared to death, but my friends and I thought it was the best. This was my first experience with "Home Haunting," and I've been hooked on it ever since.

My new hobby was also influenced at an early age by a visit to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida, where I was exposed to the two coolest amusement park dark rides ever built: Pirates of the Caribbean, and the even better Haunted Mansion. Both of these rides use incredible themeing and sets to completely immerse you into their strange, beautiful, and somewhat frightening worlds. All successful Home Haunters use the art of themeing to add realism and drama within their designs, and Disney planted the twisted seeds of creativity into my already warped brain. The ghosts in Disney's Haunted Mansion look amazingly "alive," brought to life by lighting, reflections, sound, compressed air, and, most important of all, ambience. Every couple of years or so I return to one of Disney's theme parks so I can experience the Haunted Mansion and it's ghoulish apparitions once again. Plus they have floating haunted candelabras, which I think are pretty cool.

So I've been haunting various homes I've lived in for the past few years or so, including apartments believe it or not, and I've managed to collect quite a bit of various haunting props and supplies, including masks, black lights, strobe lights, sound effects recordings, and the like. I've looked in many different catalogues and specialty shops for Halloween supplies over the years, and it amazes me how much some of this overpriced stuff costs. That's when I realized that I could probably build my own realistic Halloween props from inexpensive materials found in hardware stores and craft shops. I did some searching on the Internet and discovered an abundance of people just like me who are Home Haunters, willing to share their secrets and creations with the entire Internet population. These various sites, some simple and charming, some intricate and elaborate, are a continuing source of inspiration. Now I'm proud to have my own site on the web as a way of communicating ideas, information, and my Halloween Creations with others who share my enthusiasm for this unique hobby.

So why do I do it? Because Halloween is cool, themeing is cool, and creating scary stuff is cool (not to mention sticking it to those expensive companies and their high-priced, assembly-line crap).

By the way, if you happen to live in the greater Sacramento California area and are interested in putting together a great home or walk-thru haunt, drop me an email. Maybe we could create something really scary.