Graveyard Fence

I figured that since the weather is warming, some of you might be thinking about getting back into building for 2010. Some of you may be thinking of building or expanding your graveyard fence for this year. If you are, I'd suggest going to King Architectural Metals and sign up for their email list so you can be notified of their sales. I just got a copy of their new catalog and found myself wishing for a larger property so I could put in an order for a bunch of cool stuff. I also think I just can't live without a custom plasma cut cemetery sign-I wonder if they do that? Hmm...

I used their plastic finials to top my PVC fence and was really pleased with the results. Their prices were pretty reasonable and the package arrived fairly quickly.

You can get a good idea of how the fence looks at night from the video of my haunt, below. Maybe this year I'll get around to adding some rust and patina detailing to give it a better aged look.

Qualified Helper!

This is the year the cemetery fence has to go up. I simply can't have people poking, kicking, tripping over (and suing), etc., my props. Also, it at least serves as a mild deterrent to thievery, too. So Saturday, as the mercury in the garage hung around 100 degrees, a brave guy from my CalHaunts group showed up to help me with that, and also a prop1 controller setup for my zombie groundbreaker. (Thank all the gods for that. I would have NO clue how to set that up!)

It was up to me to start cutting pipe, and up to him to start measuring the cross beams for where to drill the holes for the PVC. I realized that drilling and cutting couldn't happen at the same time, and my buddy had to head for home at 2:00p.m. I called a neighbor to beg for drilling help. He came by and said the magic words: "I have a drill press. Let me take these over to the house to get them done." After he was done, he also loaned me his brad nail gun, which cut my labor in half. I would have had to drill pilot holes, than screw in a bunch of screws to hold the pipes to the furring strips. What a pain in the royal behind that would have been! What a guy! I really need to bake him some brownies...

My husband actually came out at one point, found out I had the neighbor drilling, and asked, "How the Hell do you get people to do this stuff for you?" Just charming, I guess...
Another friend, pictured below, stopped by to help. He's great with the spray paint.
Here's a somewhat finished fence panel, next to one that needs some finishing. It does need a patina treatment, but we'll have to see how the time goes. It may have to stay plain black this year. I picked up the finials at King Architectural Metals for pretty cheap, so if you need some, that's the place to go. I took the brad nail gun to the finials, as well, so I didn't have to screw them on. Since the nails poked out the other side, I cut the poky ends with wire cutters, so at least any vandals won't cut themselves and sue me.

The fence is going to look fantastic with the fog, etc, that I have planned for the yard. Tonight, which is the unofficial Cocktail Night in the Garage of Doom, there will be some more extra hands to help out. Maybe it'll cool off to 90 degrees by then...