Thrifted Hauntings

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #15:

Create

Last week I saw a reel on Instagram where someone took an old dollhouse and made it into a haunted house. I thought it looked really fun, so I hit up a couple of thrift stores to see what I could find. I ended up making two haunted houses, and even though it's (in my opinion) waaaaay too early for Halloween decorations, I went ahead and put them on the TV console in the family room (it's too early for Halloween decorations, but too close to Halloween to put them away. Know what I mean?)

The first one I made came from a Paw Patrol Castle ($1.50, thankyouverymuch). 

I needed to find something to cover up the paws on the castle, so I went to Dollar Tree and got some plastic skulls. I sawed their faces off with a bread knife and hot glued them to the castle in three places. 

During this process I learned that if you put hot glue on a surface that already has super glue on it, a chemical reaction occurs that can possibly burn your eyeballs out. 

Ahem. 

I had Scotty help me remove some of the components of the castle, and then I spray painted it black. 

I also had Scotty help me take apart these wooden pallets I found at Dollar Tree - which I now know are the best built items Dollar Tree sells! They didn’t go without a fight! (Which is why I had to enlist Scotty!) 

After the spray paint dried, I played around with acrylics until I liked the way the castle looked. I brushed gray paint on the castle and wiped it off to get create the foggy look and variation in color, then did the same with white on the skulls. Then I added some metallic detail to the stonework. I also painted (and repainted) the mini wood slats to glue across the entrance to the castle (thereby covering one last paw). 

I found some glittery black twigs at Walmart and added them the castle for a final touch (I avoid glitter as much as possible, but I make an occasional exception). 

During its creation, there was a moment where it looked a little too much like Skeletor’s lair, but I made some changes and I’m super happy with the end result! 

I laugh inside knowing that it was once a Paw Patrol toy.

I had so much fun making the haunted castle that the second I finished, I wanted to do it again! So off I went to the DI to buy Doc McStuffin’s house for $3 (it’s no $1.50, but you win some, you lose some). 

While I was at the DI, I also found some mason jars full of cotton balls and spiders, and a small statue of an old man that had excellent potential to become a ghost in my haunted house! (He also reminded me of the old man in the Haunted Mansion with the lantern and the sickly hound dog). 

I covered the man with black paint mixed with a little water and then wiped it off to give him a ghostly look. 

Here’s the final result - a house no longer suitable for Doc McStuffins:

And here’s my ghost man hiding in the window:

I've had to keep these projects hidden from my girls because any time I try to be creative in their presence, they want to get involved. Yesterday I bought them some stuff from Dollar Tree so they can make their own mini haunted houses - perhaps as a Labor Day weekend survival activity.